The Demon Door
by Sylo Corden
Summary: When Torrin goes missing Ghost needs to put aside her frustrations to help find him, things do not go according to plan . . .


**Author's note** : Hey guys, I hope you enjoy the story below which was our gaming group's second major campaign and follows on from the events of Shadowrunners and Matrix Snap. I had so many failed rolls in this campaign, and the rest of the team (being older, more experienced and having more karma points to spend than me) really had to protect me a lot. In this I found my character's weaknesses and tried as much as I was able with my limited stats to help. It was an important lesson for me though as I found that like in life, not everything goes your way . . .

 **Shadowrunners – The Demon Door**

Call waiting . . .

The screen blinked and flashed at me as I entered the kitchen, dumping my camp bag on the table and shaking loose my shirt, the air was hot and dry, the trip back from the temple had been a long one, I needed a shower . . .

Call waiting . . .

Bugger, there was no sign of Torrin in the house, was he on a job? He was usually in these days, retiring early from the shadow running, he was more interested in pursuing his hobby of cooking than blowing people up, maybe he thought he was getting old.

I took a more careful look around the kitchen, something was wrong. The room was stuffy, one of Torrin's pet hates, it could be minus twenty outside and he'd have a window open, "for the fresh air" he'd say, today all the windows were shut that I could see, the counter was smudged with flour and his oven mitts were left on the hob, no apron on it's hook though, the bright pink attire had been a gift some years ago, in the sink sat a few mixing bowls, a wooden spoon and a whisk, a thin layer of green mould growing over it's surface. Now I knew something was very wrong, Torrin would never have left the dishes, indeed they would be cleared and cleaned even before he'd finished pulling the cake out of the oven . . .

Call Waiting . . .

Now cautious I pulled a small knife from my boot, it was highly unlikely that anyone would be in the house now, clearly no-one had been around for at least a week, but the small cool weight in my hand gave me a measure of calm, I moved to the oven, popping it open to reveal a half baked now mouldy cake, sunken sadly at it's middle, the oven had been switched off at the mains, whatever had happened had happened quickly, and things had not been switched off by Torrin, the oven was set on a timer, switching itself off after the appropriate point, there was no need to switch off at the mains, even if he'd left for something urgent there would have been no risk of fire, that meant that someone else had been here

Call Waiting . . .

Ignoring the screen I sprinted up the stairs two at a time, now heart racing, my throat dry and fingers trembling to Torrin's room, I burst through the door into a tidy well kept space, bed made, everything in it's rightful place, a picture of me sat on the night stand laughed out at me, hand raised in triumph, a broken tooth and a black eyed girl with flaming red hair and bright green eyes, an Orc sat at my feet in a Kimono, saki glass in hand. My first karate tournament, I'd come fifth, no trophy but I didn't care, I'd stood my ground and came out smiling.

I fumbled under the bed and my fingers found the long wooden box, it's edges smooth and polished from long use, I pulled it out and flipped the lid, a custom built set of revolvers gleamed up at me, Torrin had them made specially to accommodate his clawed hands, he never went on a job without them.

His bedside cabinet drawer next, there in a fold of silk was his bible, a small slim volume, just the psalms passages but Torrin never went out for more than a few hours without it, the little book had saved his life once, the hole in the centre where the bullet had lodged, it was the job that had almost killed him, the job after he'd decided to quit the running, it was also the job where he had saved my life from the maniac that was my stepfather, It was his good luck token, his focus; the words were not important to him, he had never replaced the book with a new copy, it was the symbol of the book, the image that it gave him that gave him peace. A quick check in his wardrobes showed me he had not taken any clothes, I was trembling now as I returned to the kitchen

Call waiting . . .

I checked my face, I had flushed both pale and red, my eyes watery and my lips dry, I tried to pull a little together as I pushed the connect button on the screen

"Ghost" my voice cracked, the screen flickered and an image of an elf appeared into view, short hair, tall and built like every other of his kind, breath-taking, his usual Cheshire grin however was not present today, he was all business "Lathain, it's been a while" I said, the elf nodded

"Indeed it has, a fair few months, I'll skip the pleasantries, I have bad news, Torrin has been taken by Deef" my heart cracked, I knew it had been bad, I did not know this Deef character well, he was an enemy of some runners I had spent some time working with, by all accounts he was dead, but then the last time the guys had run into him he was suppose to have been dead as well

"Where is he?" I asked, Lathain flicked his head to one side and the image changed to a silent video of a man, if you could call it that, eight metal robotic legs fell below his torso, his movements jerky, an android? Robot? Cyborg contraption thing? this must be Deef.

"Lambast pinged this to me this morning, Deef is holding someone hostage from each of the team, he wants us to retrieve an item for him in exchange for their lives" at this point he zoomed in to a row of seated figures in the background, the image blurry but Torrin's bright pink apron set him out against the rest "I don't know how he found you Ghost, or what his deal is with you, but Lambast and Wizbit are pulling the team in"

"I'm not a part of your team" I snapped at him "What does this have to do with either of us?"

"Ghost, its just . . ."

"No!" I interrupted "You're suppose to be staying away from me Lathain, everyone is" I was angry, angry that someone had taken him from me

"Hey I didn't know this would happen either" he defended "I thought I'd let you know, we're heading out to save them Ghost, I figured you'd want to be in on this"

"Damn right I do" I said, _get it together Ghost, he's trying to help_. I sighed heavily "where and when?"

"Pier 7 in an hour, I'll swing by and pick you up"

"I moved, I'm not in my old place anymore, you know the waterfront palace market?" he nodded that he did "Pick me up there, I'll be ready in twenty" I cancelled the call and raced upstairs, I had packing to do . . .

Fifteen minutes later I was changed and loaded up with every concealable weapon I owned, Torrin's back up pistol (his own revolvers were just too heavy for me to wield) two pairs of knives, a collapsible single shot crossbow on an arm attachment, my bow from my excursions in the jungle, a quiver of arrows, shock gloves, glow sticks, rope and folding grapple, and my latest present from Torrin, a hair slide that concealed a thin needle blade, un knowing of the terrain I wore layers of black, which I could easily remove or put on and also hid my multitude of weapons, I dumped a couple of ration packs into a small back pack and after a moment's thought grabbed a credit stick from Torrin's drawer, anything I needed I would buy, and I knew at least one thing that would come in handy . . . flexing my fingers I tested one of my new spells, lightning, electricity flickered over my fingers, good, all set.

Five minutes later I was waiting outside the waterfront palace when a large motorbike pulled up in front of me, Lathain removed his helmet to offer me a smile

"You packed light I see" he noted the small backpack and bow

"I need to make a stop" I told him, "head to fifth on main to the pet parlour there"

"Pet parlour?"

"Just do it", Lathain shrugged and pulled a second helmet from the storage compartment of his bike, I pulled it on and mounted the bike behind him, hands gripping either side

"Uhh you might want to hold onto me" he suggested through the headset mic

"I'd rather die" I said, through the dark tint of his helmet I couldn't read his expression, but figured he'd have his cheeky grin set firm

"Suit yourself" he said and revved his engine, the bike pulled off sharply and at speed, my hands clasped round his waist in an instant lest I be flung into the cars around me, I heard him laugh through the crackle of the mic

"Shut up" I muttered thankful he couldn't see me blush with my arms wrapped around him, normally I hated men, I had trust issues, but with Lathain . . . it was complicated, there was no doubt he was attractive, all elves were, but there was something about him, his quick wit, sharp eyes that I really liked, he was a shadowrunner, he could have been an actor, a rock star, any fashion designer would kill to have someone like him, but he chose to rough and tumble with the rest of us, he had chosen this life of shadow, to run, to surf the matrix and make his point known, it had been his choice.

What had been my choice? Stay with my step father in a never ending hell, or run away into a world that my rich upbringing knew nothing about and scrap for survival, in the end I had made the choice to leave, luckily Torrin had found me first and my choice had not been made in vain. The main problem with Lathain though was the irritating way he acted like he was better than everyone else, his stupid grin, his massive ego which needed constant attention, the man drove me insane to the point of wanting to cap his ass.

A hefty swerve brought me back to the present and I wondered for a moment who Lathain had cared enough about to be taken, or any of the others for that matter, they'd never really talked about their home life previously. We swung across traffic to the Docks and headed for Pier 7, Lambast's truck sat outside a small storage warehouse, we pulled up and I got off quickly removing my helmet and tossing it to Lathain.

"Ghost, you're here?" Wizbit greeted me with surprise at the doorway having come out at the sound of Lathain's bike, did he not know? "Lathain, Lambast said you didn't have to come" but greeted the elf warmly anyway "We're waiting on Firefly, one of his contact was taken, and some Orc guy . . ." he trailed off as he realised that the Orc was some how connected with me "Torrin?" he guessed I nodded and he stepped aside to let me in. Wizbit had only met Torrin once before, and at the time he'd been pretty badly beat from our jungle adventure, I was a little surprised that he didn't remember though.

The storage area was surprisingly cramped inside, a network maze of piled boxes led to a central area that had been cleared away, two long tables sat at right angles to each other and a touch pad screen had been mounted at head height on a box. The Orc bulk that was Lambast paced quickly up and down, muttering to himself huge hands checking and re-checking the clip in his gun, from a chain wrapped around his wrist hung a picture of a female Orc in a white and black wedding dress, his wife? He looked up when Lathain entered the area, Wizbit close behind

"What are you doing here?" he asked "You ain't involved" he ignored me and spoke directly with Lathain, I gritted my teeth and chose not to say anything

"Figured you could use the extra firepower, and someone had to bring Casper"

Lambast finally looked at me then with a questioning look

"They took Torrin" I explained, his shoulders sagged a little and he nodded then went back to checking his gun and his rapid pacing

"His wife was kidnapped" Wizbit supplied for me in a low voice, the three of them paused then for a few seconds before Lambast stormed to the nearest wall of boxes and punched clean into them, grain and seed poured from the hole onto the floor

"Firefly isn't coming" Lathain said, "He doesn't care about the fixer that was taken as leeway, it'll be just us" he didn't care? Really? If we were going without the aid of the manic trigger happy Orc then things would be more difficult, Lambast's frustration now slightly abated and with no-one else to wait for we settled down to make our plans

"So who are you trying to get back?" I asked Lathain, he looked sideways at me for a moment but said nothing

"Deef has ordered the retrieval and safe delivery of an item known as Dragon's breath" Wizbit began, I decided to approach Lathain later "It's not a substance known to me or any of my contacts in the magic area, and as far as we can decipher it's not a weapon from the military either" he pushed a few buttons on the touch screen and a map came into view of a flat expanse surrounded by high mountains, a tiny red dot glowed, our likely destination.

"Isn't that Tibet?" I asked Wizbit nodded

"Deef has told us the location of the temple where the dragons breath is reported to be kept" the map zoomed in and more red dots appeared indicating buildings "We get in, retrieve the dragons breath and get out, we contact Deef and he tells us the next step, so any questions?"

"Yeah, if he knows where it is then why doesn't he just get it himself?" I snapped. Wizbit gave me a look which told me to keep my hot head down a notch or risk being ejected from the group.

"Who knows, I reckon he's playing with us" Lathain said, I raised an eyebrow "He's like that" he supplied

Great

It was a full day later before we had the necessary transportation and equipment, my layers of clothing would not be sufficient for the Tibetan plateau and so furs had to be purchased, a rather awkward silence had been had when we had requested arctic gear in the height of summer, but now fitted with ration packs and cold weather gear we were set to go, Lambast had blown a host of contacts in the military to arrange transport into Tibet, though the details on how we were getting out were still very much hazy.

The high altitude plane had been booked and was now taking off from the runway, our things were packed in lightweight back packs, We had to travel light, though ration packs were set for a two week encounter should the worst happen, we would be meeting an old friend of Lambast's once we got to Tibet. I. looked longingly at some of the kit I'd be leaving behind

"So Lathain" I yelled as the plane bucked wildly in turbulence "You didn't answer my question"

"No-one" he shouted back at me over the noise

"What?!" I was shocked had I heard right

"I said no one!"

"I heard that, what do you mean no-one?"

"Like I said, no-one, Deef didn't take anyone from me, I don't have a hostage in this game of his, I'm not like you and Wizbit and Lambast, hell I ain't even like Firefly, I don't have anyone to take"

"No family?" I began

"No Casper, no-one, I don't have family, I don't have friends, everyone I've ever given a damn about is sat on this plane right now, I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do, because when someone needs saving they should have someone there to try for them, I never had that Ghost" I stared at him mouth open in shock, Lathain wasn't the man I had thought of him, he wasn't doing this for glory, money, no he was doing it to help others who had no one to save them, I had him all wrong

"But then again, the women love a hero don't they?" he grinned at me "And who better to save the damsel in distress than the chosen one" he spread his arms out then recoiled as I hit him, damn that elf, just when I was starting to think better of him he opened his bloody trap.

"We're coming up on the drop zone guys" the pilot said, I can get you in to about twenty foot of the ground, but I can't maintain a position for long, you'll have to slide" Slide? . . . .

"Ghost!" Wizbit called as he swung a long rope and chain in my direction from the ceiling of the hanger, uh oh . . .

"Never done a drop before?" Lathain asked, I shook my head, my running usually involved sewer's, tight spaces and above all with my feet firmly on the ground, heights didn't bother me, I'd once used a communications wire to climb from one building to another over a two hundred foot drop, but I had a friend who could stop my fall with magic if need be, this time I had a scrappy length of rope wire

"K then, you'll double with me" Lathain said handing me a harness, double with . . .

"Guys, we're almost there, forty seconds til doors open" the pilot informed us, Lambast nodded at the harness and I quick as I could scrambled into it, he moved to the cockpit, spoke quickly and quietly to the pilot and placed a hand on the pilot's shoulder, an old war buddy perhaps?

"Hold on to your butts people" Lambast said and pulled a level beside the pilot chair

Immediately the warmth and air rushed from the cabin as the door behind us started to open, the cold air was bone deep and rushed by so fast I was nearly knocked over, Lathain put an arm around my waist and attached a clip to the front of my harness, gave me a cheeky grin and before I could even register the pilot's shout to go he lifted my feet from the floor and sprinted out the back of the plane!

I'm not sure if I screamed on the way down, all I could see below me was white and rock and a drop which seemed to go on forever, the rushing wind made my eyes well up with water and I shut them, gripping tightly to Lathain, suddenly the wind calmed and I heard the sound of metal and a shout, strong arms still held me, and now I was lowered to the ground, my feet touched earth and I could open my eyes again

"Eeerrrrm, Ghost?" Lathain asked he seemed very close . . . "You can let go now" he said, it was then that I realised I'd maintained my death grip on him, the sound of the plane now leaving above us, Wizbit and Lambast busy removing the harness, I let go and backed off Lathain, turning away so I could hide my face, flushed in embarrassment, I pulled off the harness quickly and stormed up to the stack of equipment that had been dropped next to us, retrieved my pack and tried to look really, really busy with it's contents, checking weapons, rations. I knew they'd be fine but it would be a long time before I would be able to look Lathain in the face, though he didn't seem to care in the least.

"Lambast!" a figure called out walking towards us, he was hard to spot in his white camo artic gear, he clapped the Orc heartily on the back "Long time no see my friend, you look old"

Lambast grunted at him by way of acknowledgement and heaved his pack onto his shoulders "Any word?"

"Nope not yet, though your guide is in camp waiting for you" the man looked around at the group, his eyes settled on me "New recruits?" he asked, eyes still looking my way

"Veterans" Lambast replied

"Don't seem old enough" the guy grunted and glanced to Lathain and Wizbit before looking back at me

"Lathain, Wizbit, Ghost, this is Caden" Lambast pointed at each of us in turn, quick introductions, nothing more needed, a brief nod to the group before he sidled up to me

"So Ghost" he said leading the group towards a semi snow covered bunker "You're a runner at your age? It's quite impressive, I myself have been running for near twenty years now, pretty good at it" he stretched his arms in front of him before placing them behind his head trying to look nonchalant.

"Running for six years now" I told him "I've killed more than my fair share of men, gotten pretty good at it" I grinned then, a slow curl that showed my canines "Keep walking boy" he cheerful face fell and subtly shifted his footing so he was walking just that little bit further away from me, from the corner of my eye I saw Lathain hand Wizbit a cred stick, no doubt he'd just lost a bet, Wizbit shot me a rare wink as Caden made his excuses and wandered to walk with Lambast.

Lathain moved up beside me, adopting Caden's earlier pose, mocking him

"So not your type? Shame, good looking bloke" he joked

"Well I hear he just got dumped, maybe if you like him so much you could try your luck?" I teased back, I still hadn't forgiven him for the stunt with the plane earlier so I was perhaps a little snappier than I should have been, and he didn't seem the least bit perturbed and resumed his grinning.

"So just out of curiosity what is your type?" I paused mid step

"Unless you're about to try your luck I'd not bother asking" I said, I waved a hand up and down my body "Is that what this is? Are you interested Lathain?" I gave him a sneer and increased my pace, a slight flush caught his face and I wondered for a moment if he had indeed been interested, well guess I made it clear I was the number one bitch this mission, besides I had to concentrate if I was going to get Torrin back.

We arrived at a camp basic, but it did well for the twenty or so men that called it home, here we were kitted out with gear for the trip, two donkeys and a guide, at least I wouldn't need to worry about the guide making a pass at me, he was old enough to be my great granddad. He made sure we all knew our gear and how important it was to stick together as a group, if a snow storm hit we would be easily lost, we had to care for the animals if we were to make it to our destination, they carried for us, and if we were hit back an avalanche they would become the meat and oil we would need to survive, I glanced across at the shaggy ass's, yeah and they were cute, their floppy ears twitching, I caught Lathain staring at me

"What?"

"Nothing" he said rolling his eyes, he wandered over to the donkey's and fussed them, one nibbled at his jacket playfully, so he had a soft spot for animals . . . interesting.

"We're heading to a temple up the mountain, it's too dangerous to use jeeps, so the donkey's will have to do" Lambast grunted, he handed me a tube of cream "This'll protect your skin from the UV, the air is thin up here so the damage is greater" he tossed a tube at Lathain "We move in ten, any questions ask someone else, cos I can't be arsed" he strode away, I passed a sympathetic look with Lathain, whilst Lambast had never been the cuddle up cosy type, he generally wasn't the sort to flip you the finger of life either without good reason, he must be really worried about his wife. Wizbit came over with the guide

"We're going to try and get in and out of here as quickly as possible, our guide will get us within visible distance of where we need to be, but wont go much further" he said, the guide beside him bowed his head and chatted in Mandarin, my grasp of the language was limited, however, I knew fear when I saw it

"What's he afraid of?" I asked Wizbit hushed the guide

"The guide claims the temple at the top are conducting experiments on men, they are rising from their resting places and have no mind of their own, the monks there wear the devils colour"

"The devils colour?"

"Red" he gave me a pointed look "Best to keep your head gear on at all times, I don't want to freak him out, he might not co-operate otherwise" I nodded, my hair would not be welcome here then, I made sure all the fire berry strands were tucked beneath my hat. "We also have the added problem that the Chinese army are on the move up here, we may encounter resistance in getting to the temple" Lathain's eyes lit up "I have told the camp supervisor that we'll cause as little fuss as possible" I almost laughed aloud at Lathain's expression, If he could have his ears would have been drooping like a dog, poor puppy not allowed to play with the locals.

"Is Mandarin the main language here?" I asked I had seen a man in camp with Japanese Hiragnana across his back stating his name

"There are some Japanese speakers, some English, but Mandarin is the main default one, why? Need me to translate?"

"Maybe, just wondered, I only have limited Mandarin, but if there are Japanese speakers then I should be fine"

"Maybe they speak pygmy?" Lathain added, Wizbit look matched mine, he still hadn't gotten over his big headed Chosen One adventure, if anything he was worse now

"I doubt it oh ever great Chosen One" Wizbit said, his voice monotone. Just then Lambast gave a grunted call and we rallied the donkeys and set off.

I'm not entirely sure what I expected from heavy snow travelling, but this wasn't it, with temperatures at a high of minus twenty I was greatly surprised that I was soon sweating buckets, my eyes were watering from the glare of the sun off the snow, despite my anti reflecting glasses, my knees hurt most of all, the high stepping wadding through deep snow was hard going, my easiest route was beside the donkey's as they ploughed through the snow carried loads twice my weight, the little troupers. Our first hard slog of a day passed without incident, if painfully slow, I got Lathain to check the sat nav, we had only travelled ten miles all day! This was going to take an age, though apparently as the crow flies the first temple was only another five miles off, we planned to stay there and rest for the night before the next leg.

The following morning we packed down our tents, it took me a while to stop shivering despite the thermals, an hour of hard slogging later I caught sight of a yellow patch on the snow up ahead, a little further on the yellow turned out to be the roof of a temple, well now I was happy, at least I could see where I was heading towards.

I patted the side of one of the Donkey's good naturedly, it snorted and tried to chew my back pack strap, one ear swivelled round to the back, the second donkey did the same, curious I looked behind me, but saw nothing but white snow, their other ear swung round to the back, they had heard something, I looked behind me again, still nothing . . . or was there? What was that? I thought I'd seen a flash

"Lathain" I called, the elf held back as I caught up, "Down behind us, what can you see?" the elf's eyes were better than mine, even without the wired enhancements

"Trouble" He said moving up the line fast on his feet, he barely sank into the snow at all, and of the group had the least amount of difficulty on the white landscape, a quick conversation with Lambast had the great Orc barking an order to the guide, we needed a way to move on quicker, there was one, but it was a little more dangerous, deal.

We headed west, the donkey's footsteps became more cautious, there was now silence in the group, Lambast gave a whispered command to move as silently as possible, and so despite the threat behind us, we inched slowly forward, a deep cracking sound was heard to my right, I saw a flash of panic cross Wizbit's face as he suddenly disappeared from view, Lathain was there in an instant, arms reaching out over to pull Wizbit up, when his face came into view I saw he was casting, but what? Another loud crack was heard and the ground beneath Lathain gave out, they dropped sharply but stayed standing . . . then moved vertically above the snow line . . . levitation, now I understood, it was a smart move, and a tricky spell.

I didn't think Wizbit had the focus for that kind of power, he'd always used fairly simple spells before, but then even on our first meeting I recalled the hum of power that he had emanated, he had power, lots of it, he'd now just demonstrated that he had the focus to use it too. I was impressed, but also a little saddened; with that kind of power and talent he shouldn't be running the shadows, he should be in some high paid high living job with respect, rather than eking out a living on the dangerous line.

It occurred to me then that I knew nothing about Wizbit's character at all. Lambast I understood, military pensions didn't get you far, and he had a wife, maybe even kids to support, Lathain, was just crazy, pure and simple, I did it as a way to help Torrin, and as a way of showing myself that I didn't need my step father's protection or the cushy life I could have had, yes the life I had given up would have been filled with many luxuries, but at what cost? I shuddered as ghost fingers brushed my naked skin. Even Firefly who I'd met before in the jungle had seemed to be an open and shut case, but Wizbit, why was he here? Why did he choose the life of a runner?

"Ghost, we need to get the donkeys across one at a time, can you lead?" Lambast grunted at me "Walk directly behind me, nowhere else, got it" Shaking I took the lead of one donkey, fussed it's nose and followed Lambast's large track, Wizbit deposited Lathain and himself about forty meters ahead of us, the guide was shaking holding onto the second donkey, muttering disbelief, I guess Wizbit's feat whilst incredible to me was just unnatural to the guide.

The donkey suddenly stopped, one foot raised, it would go no further, I pulled slightly, gave a sharp tap, nothing, it would not budge, I shuddered, that could only mean the ground beneath us was unstable, the animals could sense it, I fumbled in my deep pockets, there had to be one somewhere I know I'd saved one . . . Success! One of Torrin's flapjacks sat in my hand, squashed and dry, but there, I held it under the donkey's nose who stretched his neck forward for the tasty treat, just out of reach it took a tentative step forward, the lure of food overpowering the need to stay still, and so I pulled the donkey and tempted it to follow, it's partner not wanting to be left behind followed without incident. I shuddered when the groaning of breaking ice could be heard beneath my feet, but kept on, if I stopped the animals might spook then we'd get nowhere, finally we were on solid ground again, the flapjack was split into two for the donkey's to crunch, their ears flicking happily, Lambast grunted and we moved on again. From the new angle I couldn't see what had been following us, Lathain moved over to see if I was alright

"You looked a little nervous there with the mule before, you alright?"

"Ignorance is bliss" I told him, he gave me a puzzled look "With the noises and the cracking under my foot I decided it was probably better if I didn't know what would happen if I slipped or if the donkey bolted", one ear rounded on me and I scratched it "So what's behind us?" I asked

"I thought ignorance was bliss?"

"Well maybe it is, but it's spooking the twins"

"Twins?" I scratched the donkey ear again "Oh I get it, yeah we've a small troop of Chinese foot soldiers behind us, and it looks like they have a few banshees on the way as back up"

"How could you possibly know about the banshee's?" he tilted his head and tapped his temple, oh yeah, techno geek, he was probably monitoring their coms "So what are they saying?" the elf shrugged

"Don't really know, I can only pick up when they use English words, Banshee isn't a natural word to their vocabulary so was easy to pick up"

"You don't speak Mandarin?"

"Nope, and my translation software is not connecting to the matrix properly, it's a weak signal up here"

"Maybe I could give it a go for you?" I offered, he smiled at me showing his teeth

"You could, if you'd be willing to put the coms device on" I shuddered "Didn't think so, don't really want a repeat of the Nexicon base now do we?" I gave him a shy smile.

Six months back we'd taken on separate missions to steal a sample of a new nerve gas, well that had been my pay check, Lathain had been brought in separate with Lambast and Wizbit to uncover a "pest" problem one of his colleagues had, we ended up in a huge cave network directly below the Nexicon research facility, I'd been using the caves as a way in, turns out the bases experimental gas had gotten into the system causing huge mutations in bugs, a whiff of gas though had me passing out and waking up in the matrix, memories of my step father had freaked me out and I had almost destroyed the building trying to get out, had Lathain not pulled me away from the falling rubble I had caused I would be buried under it.

"Guess you'll have to speak it out and I'll translate what I can then" I said, we spent the next half hour decoding as much of the mandarin as I could, whilst Wizbit could translate it easily it gave me something to do and kept my mind off being cold, in the end we knew they had indeed called for back up, and that they were heading west around the first temple in order to beat us to the second, they hadn't yet spotted us, though the tracks in the snow meant they knew we were heading straight for the first temple

"Guess that means they haven't seen our tracks leading to the west then" Lathain said, Wizbit who had been listening shook his head

"They wont find them, I used a covering spell to disguise our tracks, as far as they're concerned we're heading directly to the temple"

"But aren't we heading to the temple?" I asked, Wizbit shook his head

"The first temple is useless to us, we don't need to stop there, we had originally planned to camp the night there, but things have changed, we need to get to the second temple as quickly as possible" The sun could already be seen dipping below the mountain tops "If we're lucky we can find an alternative hideout for the night, if not we'll have to keep going, that should give us an extra couple of hours head start on them at least, Ghost are you alright with the animals?, the guide needs to be up front" I nodded, yep, me and the twins were just fine.

We walked for another hour after which time it was dark, but the snow seemed to keep the path before us lit and visible, so much white simply reflected the smallest amount of light, we paused whilst they discussed what we should do, press on or seek shelter? With the moon full we could travel by night, but I was wary for the sake of the animals, I didn't want to put them under any necessary stress, Lathain got the signal that the Chinese were also stopping, this gave us the inclination to move ahead an hour more before finding a place to sleep, I didn't need much persuading to all share a single large tent that night rather than a few separate ones, one tent was faster to pack down, and my own tent was a bright colour, easily attracted attention, on the plus side there would be body heat, and yeah it was a lot warmer than the night before, despite the high altitude. The downside was the smell, two days without a shower meant for some pretty ripe smells, but my tiredness meant I could ignore all that and flopped down in a heap smelling of donkey and sweat, lovely.

The next morning I woke to warmth, pale light seeped in through the cover of the tent, I was oddly comfortable and resisted the calling to rouse myself fully, I smuggled down under my sleeping bag and rested my head, an odd thumping sound could be heard, steady, rhythmic, it was almost hypnotic, I was about to drift off again when the ground beneath me moved, alarmed I stuttered awake, head up in time to see a slender arm snake around me pulling me closer, I was rolled back into the face of Lathain!

I raised a hand to swat him but stopped, he was so . . . peaceful, his eyes moving beneath their lids, his lips slightly parted, his short soft hair tussled slightly, the steady beat of his pulse at his throat, looking around I realised I was still inside my own sleeping bag, his arm had simply had the reach to pull me closer, automatic, he couldn't have helped it . . . could he? There was no-one else in the tent, I could hear Wizbit and Lambast talking about their next move, I didn't know where the guide was, presumably with the donkeys. I looked down at Lathain again, his head turned in sleep and he mumbled something, like he was trying to say something, I moved closer to listen, mumbling again I couldn't make out, his fingers gripped the back of my shirt softly, I was so close to him, those lips of his moved again, barely a whisper audible, so close, my heart skipped a beat and I realised I had heard his heart beat earlier, strong, steady, so close . . .

"Good morning" he whispered, those green eyes of his lit his face, I started back but his arm held me strong and steady "Easy, sorry, did I scare you?" his voice barely above a whisper, his other hand framed my face and lightly tucked a red strand behind my ear

"uhh, Lathain?" I asked my voice also a whisper, I could feel heat rising

"Shhh, you know you're prettier when I'm asleep" he whispered and drew me in close, our lips met soft and warm, I froze, alarm bells ringing yet the heat that was building was delicious, he moved back and swept my hair back, eyes dazed in heat and pulled me in for another kiss, this one stronger, desire fuelled I could hear his heart pounding, the feel of his skin, his lips was intoxicating, I nearly gave in to those perfect lips of his, I heard voices again outside, seemingly distant now, but I reached for it, part of me whimpered as I pulled away from him and sat back, panting heavily, hand on my mouth, whether I was in shock or just savouring the last of it I don't know. Lathain sat up, a playful smile on his boyish face, before blinking, the haze went from his eyes and they became sharp and clear, focused, then confused

"Uuuhh Ghost . . . ?" he asked looking around "What happened? Was I talking in my sleep?" he'd been asleep?! Or near damn it, the events just blurred in with one of his fantasies, I felt my face grow crimson

"Yeah, talking you were talking, just talking, you know in your sleep, with the talking, well it was like you were awake really, with the you, know talking and such and I have to go" I stood quickly and burst out of the tent, the cold instantly clinging to my bare skin, Wizbit moved out of my way as I headed round a small rock and buried my head in the snow, the cold crystals shocking my face I gasped then laid down against the snow, cold, that was good, cold, wonderful cold snow, the best way to be cold, no heat just cold, lots of cold yes. After a minute I got up, brushed the snow from my clothes and headed back into the tent, Lathain now fully dressed gave me a questioning look

"Uh hey, if I said anything it wasn't me, I was just sort of well . . . he trailed off "Are you alright?" I jumped a mile at the outstretched hand

"Uh yes I'm fine, all good yup" I confirmed nodding vigorously, suddenly feeling like I would need the cold shock again, Lathain gave me another puzzled look "Lambast?"

"Outside" I moved away from him so he could get to the door, finished changing and packed up my things in record time, pulled my hair back behind my head and tied it under my hat, I paused as I realised I'd just been outside with my red hair down, hopefully the guide hadn't seen, in the tent the dark colour had made it appear a deep shade of reddish brown, and under this light even Lambast had been given a red shade, if the guide had noticed he hadn't said anything, finished with my packing I joined the others outside, Lambast grabbed the last of his gear and we packed away the tent, I couldn't bring myself to meet Lathain's concerned gaze.

A while into our trek Wizbit came over.

"Hey Ghost" he moved into step beside me "Is there something wrong?" my mind flashed to the events that morning and I felt my face grow red

"Nope nothing" I denied, then curious as to the question asked why

"Well you didn't sleep very soundly, in fact had you not calmed when you did I would have been tempted to wake you myself, do you often have nightmares?" So this wasn't about Lathain, good I sighed

"I guess, I don't really remember them" OK so that was a little bit of a lie, I remembered my bad dreams, they weren't just dreams, they were memories of my time with my step father. And yes I wanted to forget them, how I wished that I could forget, Wizbit seemed happy with my answer

"You looked pretty freaked this morning when you left the tent" he commented, that bad huh? I settled for nodding, he gave me a sympathetic look, up ahead Lathain suddenly paused and turned to look back at us

"What is it?" Wizbit and I asked in unison, Lathain's face fell

"MOVE!" He shouted, racing back down to me, racing past and grabbing the rein of the second donkey "Rocket!" he smacked the donkey's hind quarters to make it move, sure enough there just audible but getting louder was a whistling sound, a quick glance at Wizbit before I too smacked the donkey into a run, unable to keep up I simply clung on the little creature as it pulled me along and tried not to trip.

Lambast levelled his gun skywards and let off a few rounds, a few more then a small explosion could be heard, the continued fire meant there was probably more than one, a soft thud was heard up ahead to the right, one of the rockets had been shot off course it exploded into the mountainside, then silence. The donkey slid to a halt and I paused for breath, Lambast sneered at the sky as if waiting for others then snorted. He turned to carry on then paused, next thing was I'd heard it too, then could feel it, a deep rumbling at my feet, the donkey's started, the second pulling free from Lathain and it turned to run towards me and my other donkey, I put out a hand a managed to grab the rein, pulling it under control, the shaking stopped a moment

"What was that?!" I asked, looking around, ahead I could see the guide running as if scared, hands over his head he was panicking, yelling a single word as he went, Wizbit turned to look at me

"Avalanche!" He shouted and headed to the left, opposite to the guide, running up hill, Lathain and Lambast right behind him, I urged the donkeys on, but they were stubborn, trying instead to turn the way we had come, above me and to the right a white cloud came rushing towards me, no not a cloud, snow, tonnes and tonnes of snow, I whipped the donkeys and their feet finally began to move, fast and hard I clung on urging them up the slope to my left, my heart sank as I realised it wasn't enough, we would be swept away, the snow rolling towards us, already moving down the mountain face, I needed only a few more meters, a little extra time, but how? The snow wave loomed over us as the power built

"NOOOO!" I shouted and released the energy, a shockwave blasted out and hit the wall of snow, miraculously punching it back for those few extra feet, the donkeys pulled onwards and we were out of the direct flow, snowballs as large as tree branches rained down on us, but soon we were up and out of harms way, the drain of the spell hit me then and I passed out.

I woke about twenty minutes later; Lambast's huge yellow eyes stared down at me

"Smart move" was all he said before letting me up, We were behind a large rock, Wizbit was nowhere in sight, neither was Lathain, they had all been above me on the slope . . .

"Where is everyone?" I asked nursing my pounding skull, I hated spell drain, my last spell had been powerful enough to knock back an avalanche but it had also knocked me for six.

"Wizbit and the elf are out scouting the area, they can go best unseen" Lambast said, his eyes out over the destroyed mountainside, a quick look then he was down behind the rock again, which could only mean. . . my eyes moved forward and found the two donkeys lying down, red blood splashed around their heads, dead.

"Lambast?"

"Just after the avalanche cleared we got shot at, one of the donkeys then a near miss on you, we got you out of there but . . ." he looked back to the two soft furry bodies "Sorry Ghost, we didn't know we would be shot at"

"But who could be shooting at us?" I asked, tears welling up at the dead animals before me, I wiped my tears away before they could freeze

"Seems the avalanche uncovered a base of some sort on the mountainside opposite, who ever they have taking pop shots at us is good for such a distance"

"The army?" I asked, Lambast shook his head "Most have probably perished in the avalanche, those that survive have a difficult journey to make now"

"The guide, did he?" Lambast shook his head again, so we were without a guide now "How are we suppose to find the temples now?"

"Lathain downloaded a basic map, with his GPS we can at least find out if we're heading in the right direction, we're not far from the second temple, were it not for the outcrop of rocks we would be able to see it right now"

I nodded and wiped my eyes again, trying not to think of the dead animals in front of me, Lambast looked out over the snow again and ducked back down

"Can you cast?" I shook my head, I needed to re-charge, I might be able to cast after a short while but right now I was too unfocused "Then we need to move and quickly, there's an embankment about 100 meters to our right down the slope where Wizbit and Lathain are, I take it you can run?"

"Like a horse" I replied, I took a second to catch my breath then sprinted out from cover, immediately my eyes focused on Wizbit's figure and my legs raced over the fresh snow, the sky was greying and flakes started to fall, I blew strands of hair from my face as I leapt up and over a small ridge separating me from Wizbit, I landed on Lathain at the other side, he'd been hidden from view

"Stupid bitch" he hissed as he rubbed his head where my boot had collided with him

"Nice to see you too" I muttered, Wizbit was firing mana bolts over the bank at an enemy I'd yet to see "What we got?"

"Half a force of idiots with guns and some crazy guy with a sword" Lathain said reloading his gun

I snapped my head up for a second to get a glimpse before retreating back down "But he's blind!" I exclaimed, indeed the troop before us had been advancing laying fire out on our group, Lambast taking huge chunks out of them, Wizbit's magic seemed to arc around the samurai warrior, a red bandana over his eyes, he looked the epitome of bad ass

"Can you take them out with that shock thingy you have?" Lathain asked popping his head up to the cry of a fallen man, one down

"I'm drained out, I could maybe tackle one at a time if I really concentrate" I said, I fumbled in my layers for my pistol, water had gotten into the muzzle, it was frozen shut, my bow and arrows were back with the dead donkey's, I had knives I could maybe throw, but that was it

"Then stay down til it's over, or you'll just get in the way" Lambast grunted taking another shot, I looked at him shocked, Wizbit merely shrugged and Lathain ignored him, I could help, I really could. But at that moment I felt helpless

"Grenade!" Wizbit shouted and dove from the cover, Lambast followed as a lump of metal landed in the soft snow at Lathain's feet, surprised the elf turned to go but was caught and fell hard, a crack was heard, instinct made me want to turn, but I was angry, angry that I couldn't be of help, that we were being attacked, that someone had dared to take Torrin away from me, I snatched up the grenade and stood a second, hell fire across my face before throwing it back straight into the middle of the on coming troops, the snow was falling heavily now, the blast could be heard but the effect was being clouded out in white as men fell from their own grenade, the snow fell across like a sheet and in a second the world was white, I rushed to Lathain's side and rolled him over, blood poured over his nose, he groaned and raised his hands to his face, feeling for the damage, I looked out over the field of snow, but saw nothing, there was silence, I couldn't have gotten all of them could I?

"Lathain I need your gun, a blood covered hand gave me a pistol, I felt for the trigger, a smooth surface instead, operated by com link only, stupid tech guns

"Just aim it" Lathain said, he'd remote fire, a quick glance at the muzzle showed me a pin point that would hold a camera, I just had to aim; I kept my eyes forward, gun out into the falling white, beside me a crack was heard followed by a rapid curse

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Shut up" he muttered nursing his face, my hand moved to a shadow before me coming out of the gloom, after a second I lowered the gun "What are you . . . ?"

"It's Lambast idiot" sure enough the hulk of an Orc came through into vision, gun in hand, he lowered his weapon and grunted at Lathain

"What happened to you?"

"Lost a fight with the mountain" I piped before he could explain anything, I grinned at him, his face mostly now clear of blood, though it was badly swollen, his eyes were bloodshot and teary "Are . . .are you crying?" I teased then dodged a punch

"Shut up" he muttered again, wow that must have hurt for him to be so sensitive about it, or maybe he was just upset that his pretty face had been smashed up, but then given his techno enhancements he would probably look fine in a couple of hours anyway.

"Where's Wizbit?" I asked

"I'm right here" a voice said behind me, Wizbit materialised out of thin air, I had almost forgotten, was there nothing this guy couldn't do? My own invisibility spell was blurry at times, and you could always feel the air around me, if you looked hard enough it even shimmered, but Wizbit's was flawless, he made magic look so easy, one of these days I'd have to get his story from him.

"We're moving" Lambast said, gun raised again, the snow was now so thick we could barely see each other

"Where to?"

"We're gonna head for the base ahead, the snow storm will last a while and we need to get out of it"

"My pack is still up the mountain" I said

"Lathain, go with Ghost, we'll meet you at the base" I heard a soft click, transfer of information between coms most likely, the party split and me and Lathain made our way up the mountain, it was difficult going, the snow was so thick we had to be close enough to see each other, after ten minutes climbing we doubled back, the snow having covered the donkeys, I found them by tripping on them in the snow, it was hard to gather my things from the dumpy little creatures, in two days I'd become so attached to them. Several of my glow sticks had cracked and were now useless and a few arrows had also suffered, but my bow was fine, and the specialty arrows I'd picked up on my way to the dock were protected in a hard case, I geared up, opening my jacket to strap a second knife belt there Lathain held my arm

"You alright?" he nodded to my side, the white lining of my coat was marked with red, invisible on the black top beneath, the cold must have kept me from noticing, I pulled up my combat vest and shirt, using snow to clear away the blood, a shallow graze, nothing more

"I'm fine"

Geared up we headed back down the mountain, Lathain toting some of Lambast's gear

"If I don't take them and he needs them he'll cap my ass" he said, we stuck close, Lathain leading the way, we passed the battle ground of bodies, dead or dying from the grenade, I slit throats of those still alive in pain, half covered in snow they wouldn't survive from their injuries and I wasn't the type of person to let a dead man suffer longer than he had to. There was no sign of the blind samurai. I came to the last of the men crying out, only his face and flailing arm visible in the soft snow

"Shhhhh" I cooed softly, I took his hand and squeezed gently before slitting his throat, a silent thank you in his eyes as the light died from them

"Must be hard" Lathain commented

"It is hard knowing that you are the last thing they see on this earth, but I would rather they see me than feel their body give way slowly, for soldiers a slow death is a cruel death"

"For anyone" he agreed, "Is that why you wear your hair down when you kill someone like that?"

"Sorry?"

"You frame your face with your hair, and you always look calm, serene, it's as if you want to give them a beautiful memory to go home with"

"I didn't realise . . . " I trailed off, wow Lathain could be deep sometimes, I turned away and cleaned my blade in the snow, Lathain keeping an eye out, as I stood he went rigid, suddenly flinging his arms around me, tackling me to the ground, the sound of gunshots went out, we rolled in the snow, coming to rest beside a dead man, grenade shrapnel littered his face, now unrecognisable, poor bastard.

"Damn it I can't see" Lathain was scanning around, more gun shots, the body beside us sprayed with impact, we skittered out of the way "Move!" Lathain said I scrambled blind in the snow "Keep dodging, I've got his coms link, I'll try scramble it, give him a headache" I heard a whine and Lathain cringed, a high pitched frequency burst to hurt the ears of the guy firing at us, but the reprieve lasted only a second before the hail continued "Keep going straight" Lathain shouted behind me, I glanced back and he was gone, suddenly I was running blind, head first, alone. The bullets smacked the snow around me, running through fresh deep snow was impossible, I tripped and rolled, up on my feet again and on the move, bullets again around me, suddenly the hail stopped, but I kept running, I fell again, exhausted, I looked about, white everywhere, I saw in the gloom a shadow and headed towards it, my feet hit harder ground and my hands touched rock, I collapsed in a heap at the rock's base, a large boulder from what I could see of it, it would offer a little protection from the maniac with the gun.

Panting heavily I checked my gear, methodical every strap, every knife, it was a tactic to calm my mind, I was in a snow storm on a mountain high up in Tibet, no-one but the guys knew I was here, I had no coms link to be tracked by, couldn't see a hand in front of my face properly, I was lost. It was so cold, the heat from my run being whipped away from me, I couldn't stay here, I would die in the snow, buried under the falling flakes, a tip from my shock arrows had detached, a quick magnetic click secured it again . . . magnetic . . . maybe . . . I pulled a gloved hand free and flexed my fingers a moment, I felt a tickle of electricity build, playing over my hands, I focused on the frequency changing it up and down before finally I got the result I wanted, electricity jumped from my hand to the metal knife I held, electro magnetic frequencies, so it worked in principle, would it work large scale, I was still battling drain from my last big spell but gathered up what energy I could and sent out a larger bolt of frequency, cursing as the bolt shocked the knife in my hand, but also bent outwards into the snow, attracted to something else large and metallic, I hoped it would be a door, using a lot of focus I followed the electric light I could see, a strange purple glow, astral eyes the Kabalah Monks had told me, I hadn't seen it before in my training, maybe it was the desperation of the situation but I could see it faintly now, I glanced about looking out for Lathain, the connection died, I cursed, I needed full concentration if I was going to survive, I stopped and started over, followed the purple haze, after a short while I heard a click, close by and stopped, a gun hammer being cocked, and I had no doubt it would be aimed at me.

"Ghost" I called out "It's Ghost" praying that it was the guys on the other side of the snowfall, there was silence before I heard a muffled laugh

"Told you she'd be fine" I heard Wizbit's voice, I moved forward almost bumping into the hulk of Orc that was Lambast

"Hey big guy" I said with a grin "Wizbit" with a nod, I looked about, but the snow showed me nothing more "Where's Lathain?"

"Unlocking the door" Wizbit supplied, "It was the least he could do after abandoning you to your fate" purposefully loud, it got the desired reaction from the disembodied voice

"I told you we had to split so I could go back and take out the shooter, how is it my fault she doesn't have a coms link? Not my fault she got lost"

"How did you find us anyway?" Wizbit asked curiously

"Electro magnets" I said nonchalantly, he raised a snow covered brow impressed, suddenly a deep groaning could be heard and there was light coming from my left

"Got it" Lathain shouted over the top of the noise, I prepped my bow for resistance on the other side, the door opened up to a huge cavernous room, row upon row of control panels in view, not a soul in sight, we stepped out of the snow fall, grateful to be able to see something other than white, the room, despite it's many fluorescent lights seemed dim in comparison to the wall of white outside, Lathain was quick to close the door behind us, he gave me a quick glance over to make sure I was OK, a fresh cut over his left brow, probably from scuffing with the shooter, I gave him a silent nod of thanks.

I turned my attention to the huge room before me, Wizbit and Lambast were already on the move, making their way to the huge set of blast doors at the opposite end of the room, Lathain appeared beside me

"The doors are rigged shut, we wont get any surprises from out there" he said

"Great job, looks like the guys could do with a hand with the other door" I was still edgy around him after the events of the morning, though it felt like an age and a day since then, it had only been a few mere hours, Lathain took the hint and joined the others, I sat at one of the computer chairs, head in my hands a moment to rest, staring at the floor, so tired. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a small pool of water, the only thing marring the pristine white floor was the footprints we had dragged in with us, Lambast's huge boots marked over Wizbit's smaller foot, Lathain's sneakers, my . . . wait . . .

I looked across to the guys, four, including mine, so who's prints were . . .

A set of watery footprints lead from the doorway, and bent, not towards the door opposite, but disappeared to a wall, half a print ending flush to the wall, a secret door

"Hey guys, I think I found something" I called, I looked across, Wizbit was having a hushed argument with Lambast, and Lathain's glazed look told me he was in matrix territory, probably trying to get through security to open the door. Fine.

I stood flush with the invisible door and focused. No strange glow of astral purple could mean it wasn't magically sealed, or that simply I was too tired to see into the astral realm properly. I pushed experimentally, the steel flexed slightly, but where was the lock?

"Hey guys!" I called, tracing my fingers over the steel, feeling for a join, visibly I couldn't see one, but there had to be one somewhere, wait . . . there, my fingers brushed harsher steel, faint but detectable, I ran my hand up and round feeling for the change, the opening door would be two meters wide, and possibly as tall as the next room tile, roughly two meters tall, I looked again at the footprints, now starting to dry a little, a rapid pace from the main door to the secret one, but just by a desk both feet were planted before moving on again, this time leading with the opposite foot, I went across to the desk, over by the other door I could still hear Wizbit and Lambast talking, whatever the conversation it wasn't pleasant, I could have sworn I heard "inflict pain so bad . . ." Lambast must really hate the guys who'd taken his wife. I felt along the bottom of the desk, sure enough I felt an indentation underneath; I pushed and heard a click. The door way appeared sliding seamlessly and soundless into the floor. The tunnel showing nothing but black, I stood in the entrance trying to see down the corridor, nothing.

"Guys!" I shouted again pulling a glow stick from my belt snapping it, I glanced across at the guys as I shook it to get the yellow fluid going, still busy amongst themselves. "Wizbit! Lambast!" I shouted at the top of my voice and threw the glow stick into the corridor. Wizbit looked at me finally, surprise at the gaping hole I was stood beside "When you're ready" I turned to look down the corridor, the glow stick skittered to a halt, no stopped.

From the light at his feet the samurai from before was seen, bandanna over his eyes, slowly he raised his hand and pulled the bandana free, his eyes glowed yellow in the light, pure solid white of a blind man. In his other hand a grenade which he dropped, smoke began pouring out into the corridor. I shot a look across to Wizbit and Lambast who started to run towards me, I nodded to them and raced into the tunnel after the samurai.

The smoke was thick and burned my throat, tear gas. Eyes streaming I raced through the corridor, my foot kicked the glowstick as I ran past skittering it before me, the glow bouncing around the corridor through the fog of smoke. Suddenly I collided with something, instinct made me clamp my arms on to hold tight and we went down together, a strong foot kicked me in the stomach and I let go. I struggled to my feet, as I did so I heard the rasp of metal, a sword being drawn, not good, definitely not good. I saw the smoke swirl and bent back out of the way, bending almost double as the samurai blade came out of the smoke, the eyes of the samurai streaming, but not needing them, he swung again, backing up this time I wasn't quite fast enough, a fine line of blood welled at my shoulder. I shot forward inside his reach, grasping his wrist and restricting his movements; his head moved forward and collided with mine, pain exploded across my face and my eyes blurred, he pulled his arm from my hand ready to swing again, panic hit and I pushed out, felt the split second of charge before the shockwave was unleashed, those blind eyes were last thing I saw.

The force greater than I had anticipated I went flying backwards through the smoke, the sound echoed in my head making my ears ring, my back hit something solid and resisting and my world went black.

Pain was my companion on waking, I glanced around me, my vision blurred and lapsing but starting to clear, Wizbit's face appeared over mine, covered in a layer of dark dust, heat emanated from his hands, a healing spell, I gingerly felt my face, a swelling above my nose, broken. My hand came away wet with blood, sticky and starting to congeal, vision in my right eye was splashed with red where blood had run into my eyes. In my left hand I held the bandana of the samurai; it must have come off his arm when I grabbed him. I tried to sit and immediately felt sick, rolling over to throw up on the dusty floor.

"Easy, easy there" Wizbit said taking my shoulders and supporting me "Take it easy for a minute, I just spent twenty minutes putting you back together" twenty minutes?

"How long was I out?"

"Nearly half an hour" he said calmly, he bent and picked me up as if I weighed nothing and carried me to a chair and sat me down. The heat from his hands burnt through my clothes to my skin, slightly uncomfortable but the rest of my pain was falling under a veil of healing. I wobbled slightly when he let go, he handed me a water canister and I sipped slowly. "What do you remember?"

"Uhhh, I remember you talking to Lambast and the door opening, and I remember the samurai guy being in the corridor, he uh, he swung at me then that's it" I said

"What you did was run into a tear gas filled corridor with no back up then proceeded to use a blasting spell in a confined space, the force of which threw you out of the corridor straight into Lambast, who by the way isn't happy you've dented his armour, what were you thinking?! We'd have been there a few seconds later, we could have taken him out together, as a team. Now thanks to your little stunt we've had to take the long way round" he was angry, his voice raised. "I mean, what did you think you were doing letting off an area spell like that, and at force?! You've just chunky salsa'd the corridor into collapsing, and you put yourself in danger, that guy was a nut, probably an adept, not just some blind guy with a sword, you could have been killed, you're lucky you're not dead!" I'd never seen Wizbit angry before, he was furious, and I was afraid of him then

"I'm sorry he was getting away and . . ."

"So let him get away Ghost, we're not here to start a war, we're just in here to get away from the storm, maybe snatch a ride, I don't give a shit about some sword wielding psychopath, what I care about is getting this mission over and done with, bring my guy home, What do you think Torrin would say if he was here? If he knew how stupid you'd just been, do you know how hard it is to fix a crushed lung and ruptured spleen with magic? It's not easy Ghost" that explained the pain I was in. Wizbit sighed and rubbed his face, my dried blood stuck to his hands, he ignored it, I tried to look as sorry as I felt, he was right, it had been more than stupid of me. He fixed me with a softer look "Just think next time, we've got your back" I smiled a little and coughed, my lungs hurt like hell and I tasted copper in my mouth.

"Don't worry" I said spitting blood "I don't think I'll be pulling any more crazy stunts for a while"

"at least a day" Wizbit confirmed, he paused a moment, his eyes distant "You have got to be kidding me"

"What?"

"We have company" Just then a boom sounded out through the room, the hanger door shook, rattling in it's beds, Wizbit swept me up in his arms despite my protest "You aren't fit to walk yet" heat from his hands flared again, a silent cast of healing, just how powerful was this guy.

"Wait, where's Lathain and Lambast?"

"They went through the other door" Wizbit said moving not towards the large door opposite the entrance, but to the rubble filled doorway of the secret passage, in total darkness he ducked and moved about, seconds later we heard a blast, the floor of the corridor shook, more debris fell, but didn't hit us, I felt the drain of heat escape Wizbit's hands

"Are you Ok?" I whispered

"Fine" came the reply through clenched teeth

"Put me down, I'll walk"

"You're crazy, you couldn't even sit" true, but I didn't like the idea of Wizbit getting hurt on my account.

Suddenly from the room behind us a crash of broken glass was heard and gunfire erupted, the sound bouncing down the corridor, what ever it was, it wasn't one of us, Wizbit confirmed both Lambast and Lathain were at the other end of the facility securing a truck, we'd stepped into a private war. Wizbit was just going to let them get on with it. He kept going down the corridor, occasionally sitting me down to move rubble to make the gap wide enough, I could sense his energy starting to lag.

"You should stop healing me for now" I said "Wait until you've had some rest, I'm not in any danger from my injuries at the moment. He looked hard at me, then nodded gratefully. No longer needing to heal me we moved faster down the corridor, it seemed like an age before we reached daylight, the sounds of the battle behind us had stopped about ten minutes ago.

"We're in luck" Wizbit said as light hit my face at the other side

"Hey Casper, didn't picture you playing the damsel in distress" Lathain's cheeky grin appeared in the broken doorway "It's a good look for you" I didn't even have the strength to smack him, so settled for an angry glare instead "We got you a ride" I heard the roar of an engine, looking around Lathain I could see Lambast riding up to the entrance of the tunnel in a huge jeep, it's big tyres modified into treads for travelling on snow. Wizbit dumped me in the back and climbed into the passenger seat.

"You look like shit" Lambast grunted

"Sorry about your armour" I said trying to look apologetic, Lambast simply grunted and revved the engine

"I'll get the door" Lathain said moving off. Now seated I was able to get a better look at my surroundings, we were in a hanger of some kind, row upon row of jeeps lined one wall, a huge set of blast doors, and as the other room a huge domed roof There looked to be several offices too and numerous doors leading out, and a guy, Wait?

"Lathain watch out!" I called, staring in disbelief at the guy now running towards Lathain, it was the crazy samurai! He was alive? But how could he have survived that?. The elf stopped dead in his tracks, a flick of the wrist and was armed with twin blades, parrying the blow of the broken sword that swung at his face. Lambast jumped the seat and started firing behind us, gunfire erupted everywhere, Wizbit also jumped ship and raced to the blast doors, dodging past Lathain and the blind samurai, the samurai felt him move past and moved to intercept, but Lathain was on his back, keeping him busy

"Ghost, you'll have to get in the drivers seat!" Lathain shouted, I immediately moved to climb over the seats in front of me, a bullet pinged off the door right beside my hand, I took a deep breath and hauled myself up using my arms, pain shot through me in every direction and I all but fell into the front seat, it felt like an agonizing battle to right myself, I pushed the lever to move the chair forward, my feet able to touch the pedals, I looked for an ignition, a bullet took out the wing mirror on my left, spraying my lap with glass, where was that . . .

"It needs a coms link!" I shouted at Lathain "You picked a bloody coms driven truck!" Lathain dodged another blow and high kicked the samurai in the face, even from this distance I heard his nose break

"I know!, just steer the bloody thing!" as he shouted at me the engine roared and the wheels spun, I grabbed the steering wheel and pulled hard to the left to avoid hitting Lathain, it must have been part of Lathain's plan because at that moment he threw the samurai under the treads of the truck, the whole carriage shook and it rolled over the body. The truck stopped and Lathain jumped into the seat beside me, not caring about the stray bullets "Move over" noting the state of me he lifted me like a doll and pulled me out of the drivers seat, taking my place, he handed me a pistol "Just aim, like before" I nodded and pulled myself up in the seat, twisting round despite the pain to aim at the group of men firing at Lambast.

I nearly dropped the gun in surprise, fighting beside the huge Orc was an equally large Orc, one broken horn and the tattoo over his left shoulder told me it was Firefly, but how did Firefly get here, why was he here? Had he changed his mind about the contact that had been taken?

"Ghost!" Lathain shouted, I snapped out of my questions and aimed at the shooters, the gun bucked in my hand, Lathain span the jeep and I nearly lost my balance, the sharp movement jarred my side causing me to cry out in pain, sweat broke out over my forehead and my vision blurred, I fought for control over my stomach as the jeep swerved round towards the two Orcs. "You OK?" No Big Ears I really wasn't, the jeep rolled over rubble from the corridor where it had spilled into the room, another jolt, this one felt like it was tearing up my sides, I screamed in pain again as heat flushed up and out, black spots swirled in my vision, the jeep spun again and jolted, clawed hands lifted me to the back seat, I felt the gun slip from my fingers, but the sound of it hitting the floor of the jeep was lost to me, My lungs were on fire, breathing was difficult, I looked down and focused on my stomach, my hands covered in blood, fresh, my blood.

The world was silent but for a deep thud, slowly getting fainter, I thought idly that it was my heart, slowly giving up, the world was black and I tried to open my eyes, realisation that they were already open, blind and deaf to everything around me, I felt air pushing into my lungs, forced, could feel blood pouring from my wounds and into my labouring lungs, heat faded and a cold crept in. For a moment I could hear static, like an old radio trying to get through. The face of my step father flashed in front of my eyes, no. I was dying, please don't let my last memory be of him. I knew then it was true, I was dying, a victim of my own stupidity, I didn't want to die, I still had to save Torrin, he needed me, then a flash of a face, cheeky grin, bold and clear burned into my mind, mixed emotions frustration, anger, laughter, and something, I smiled . . .

The world turned white, clouds passed in and around me, no trace of sky, just the white clouds, I tried to move and felt my mind stretch, but there was no sense of a physical body, had I left it behind? Was I dead?

 _Not yet_ a voice came through the clouds

 _Who is that?_

 _I am me, I have many names, you might call me Fate_

 _Fate?_

 _Indeed, I am the voice that every living creature has that tells them where they are going in life, or in death, I am the unknown entity that your world once knew but in your advancement has forgotten about_

 _Are you telling me you're a soul?_

 _Well done, yes a soul, a spirit, a life force, call me what you will, I am everything that you cannot see but know deep down is there_

 _Why are you talking to me?_

 _Because you're not finished yet_

 _Finished with what?_

 _Life_

 _But everyone dies, everything dies eventually, this is my time_

 _No child, not yet, you still have a job to do_

". . . must have pulled hard enough to open the suture . . . "

". . . no way to tell if she'll make it the night, she's broken and I can't fix . . ."

". . . what ever you can do, I need her . . ."

". . . giving up on her . . ."

I was warm; lying on something soft, the smell of incense was strong. I opened my eyes to see Lathain's face asleep beside me; he wore his jeans and black T, clean shaven and smelling of soap, a few sterile strips above his left eye, his brow creased in a frown, my eyes took in my surroundings, a spacious room, simple cloths hung from the ceiling, a statue of a Buddha looked down at me from across the room, lit incense at it's base, a large jug and bowl sat on a low table beside me, my bed was a futon style, the cloth beneath me soft but coarse at the same time. I was in pain, but not the agony that I had expected.

I shifted my weight to try and sit up, pain was company to the part but it was bearable, Two huge green eyes opened beside me.

"Hey" Lathain said blearily

"Hey" my voice was cracking and dry

"So I hear you decided to go for a stroll on the other side" he said, he smiled a little as he got up to stretch "and when we're in the middle of a job too, you know you take a holiday when this is over instead" I couldn't help but smile

"Hmmm, a holiday would be great I think, somewhere sunny and warm" Lathain handed me a glass of water, I sipped slowly, the liquid cooling my throat.

"After this is over I could take you to this place, it's kind of off the beaten track, not a soul for miles and it's . . ." he trailled off as he caught me staring, realising what he was saying he cleared his throat "I mean of course there's plenty of space, so you know Torrin and you could share a room, there's a million and one things to do so you can do your own thing it's really up to you both"

"It's not like that" I interrupted quietly, Lathain's face was a mixture of confusion and . . . relief? "Things with me and Torrin are . . . complicated, but we're not a couple" I felt my face heat with embarrassment

"Oh I just thought that with . . ." he trailed off and we sat in awkward silence for a while, he took a drink of water then brightened "So a holiday with me then?" I nearly choked on my water.

"We spent hours fixing her and you try and drown the poor girl" Wizbit said striding in, barefooted jeans and T, also clean and recently groomed, a few fresh scars, still red, criss-crossed his arms.

"You're looking better" Lathain said, Wizbit looked at his arms a moment

"Healers know their trade I'll give them that, they're ready for you next, Lambast is taking a shower and de-briefing Firefly then we're all meeting here to discuss our next move, looks like we'll be here for the rest of the night at the very least until Ghost can walk"

"I can walk"

"Walk properly and without further injury" Wizbit said pointedly, fair enough, I wasn't going to complain at the extra rest. "Anyway Lathain, you'd better head out, get that hole seen to before your bandages leak again" hole?

Lathain gave me a wink then jumped to his feet as lightly as any cat, patted Wizbit on the back as he left, he didn't seem hurt at all, aside from the graze on his forehead I wouldn't even say he was injured.

"Hole?" I inquired

"Yup, took a bullet to the chest that went through the plating in his armour, luckily missed all his vitals"

"But he seems fine I don't get it"

"Pain suppressors, he wont feel the hurt until he'd almost dead, part of his modifications with the whole techno thing he's got going on" he sat beside the bed, legs crossed looking weary, this was the first time I'd seen any of the guys looking tired, or semi-defenceless at least, none were armed, or appeared to be without arms, Wizbit as a mage of course was never defenceless, but they were all simply dressed and barefoot, I tried to imagine Lambast without a gun and my mind nearly exploded with the effort. "So Firefly was really here?" I asked changing the subject; I recalled seeing the Orc in the fire fight before I passed out.

"Yup, burst through the dome ceiling as we were exiting, took out half an army with Lambast and generally gave covering fire for us whilst we got the hell out, got shot up a bit for his trouble"

"Why is he here? I didn't think he cared about his fixer?"

"He doesn't, but the people he works for do, he's been hired to bring his fixer back alive"

"So help, not with the noblest of intentions but help none the less" I mused I looked at Wizbit again "You're pretty beat up" I noted

"Yeah, getting the door open I took a frag blast, covered my face but" he waved his arms before him showing off the scars "Hurt like hell, this is why I don't do front line work, I leave that up to Lambast and Big Ears"

"Sounds like you're recovering at least" Lambast grunted coming in, Firefly behind him

"Getting there" I said though very much feeling like I needed a shower, but even the pain was subsiding when I talked

"Good, we're moving out first thing in the morning, the next temple is a day's walk, but with the jeep there's enough fuel to get us there and back in just under a day, if we leave at first light" Lambast grunted again and sat down scratching his left horn, he did that whenever he was twitchy about something, I decided I didn't really want to know about what just yet "Where's Lathain?"

"With the healers" Wizbit supplied

"They still working on him?"

"He only just left" Lambast looked from Wizbit to me then nodded

"He's sweet on you" Firefly said leaning lazily against the doorway, Wizbit rolled his eyes and Lambast gave his non-committal grunt

"What?" there was something that they hadn't told me

"It's nothing" Lathain said strolling in, shirt in hand, fresh bandage over his chest . . . I turned so I wouldn't be caught starring "Patch job, not as bad as they thought, they just gave me a chunk of leaves to chew" he explained mockingly pulling invisible green bits from his teeth, he looked about the room then settled his eyes on Lambast "So we're moving out?"

"First light"

"Better get some shut eye then" he said "Ghost"

"Uh yeah?"

"If you want to take a shower I'd go now" the guys stood and left sensing things were about to get awkward, I didn't have the strength to stand on my own, let alone take a shower, it was just me and Lathain again, though I didn't miss the warning look in Wizbit's eyes as he left.

"Soooooo" I stalled "I take it there aren't any women in the temple?" I could feel my face heat

"Nope, but Brother Soi will help you, I'll take you to him" I was a little relieved, the idea of bathing in front of a man was embarrassing and unnerving, but to bathe in front of Lathain was more than terrifying, he knelt down beside me and scooped me up, his skin burnt hot against mine and I hid my face in my hair.

He carried me through the hallways to where an ancient looking man stood waiting, I could hear running water beckoning me. So eager to get into the spray I all but jumped from Lathain's arms. He lowered me to the floor gently, letting me test my weight before releasing me enough to stand, though he kept me stable, the old man, Brother Soi, came forward and took his place, surprisingly steady despite his age. A slow hobble to the shower room, which was out of place and modern in this wilderness. Brother Soi said nothing as he gently removed the bandages over my sides and helped me remove my clothing, averting his eyes and only focusing on what was required. I was very grateful for his help. He let me bathe myself as much as was possible, his robe soaked through to his skin as he stood beneath the spray holding me up. I washed my hair in a strong smelling soap that reminded me of Jasmine flowers, and carefully washed the dried blood from my skin, exposing the soft pink scars, they were tender and numerous, and these were just on the outside. Though with each passing moment I felt stronger, and by the time my shower was up, could stand on my own unsupported. I mentioned I felt stronger to the Brother

"Tea make strong, more be good for you" he said in broken English. Tea huh? I took a slightly closer look at the Brother, he could easily be close to a hundred, the old saying "it's something in the water" must hold true here. I dressed in a black robe that came to my knees, my hair pulled back, I would need to brush it when I got back to my room. Lathain was waiting on the other side of the door; Brother Soi handed me over and carried my clothes away to be cleaned.

"You're looking a damn sight better" he said wrapping an arm around my waist for support

"I feel it" I admitted "I actually feel stronger every minute; the Brother said something about tea?"

"Hmm yes, Wizbit is trying to get hold of some of that, works wonders, it's a native plant, only grows at these altitudes, so very rare, eaten raw its poisonous, but dried and served then as a tea it has amazing healing abilities, but the Brothers wont part with it for any price"

"Shame, I can see it being very useful"

"It's the main reason you're walking around so soon after taking a bit hit"

"What about you? Are you still hurt?"

"Nah, I'm good to go, the healers here use a combination of magic and herbs, and prayer, whole lotta talking"

I laughed "Prayers were once thought to be a form of magic you know" I said

"Really?" he sounded genuinely surprised "Always seemed like people talking to themselves to me"

"You not a religious person?"

"Me? No, not really, I have to see things to believe them, and Gods generally need to be believed in first before you can start to see them, wrong way round of thinking I guess"

At my room now he moved me to the bed, my pack had been brought in and the contents laid out for inspection and packing . . .

"Where are my weapons?"

"Peace to all, even your enemy" Lathain quoted "In exchange for their help we promised to abide by the rules of the temple, no weapons beyond the entrance door, so our gear is stashed in the jeep outside"

"So what about magic users, they don't exactly use weapons"

"They've got some kind of safe room that is protected, other than that I assume they just trust us" there was a knock at the door and a young Brother came in with a pot of tea, poured us each a cup and left with the tray again, it smelled sweet

"This the stuff?"

"Smells like it" Lathain said taking a sip, he pulled a face "Yup, that's the stuff"

"I wish I could take some with me, seems like recently all I ever do is get shot at, blown up or bitten"

Lathain stared into his cup for a long moment, I started pulling the tangles from my hair with my brush, slow and a little painful, I hissed trying to reach high enough, Lathain took my brush from me

"Don't strain yourself, wonder drugs aside you're still suppose to be resting" I was about to protest but the look on his face told me I'd better keep my mouth shut, we sat in silence for a while, Lathain brushing the knots from my hair, when finished he braided it into two long plaits "Do you ever think about quitting?" he asked me

I was so surprised by the question I didn't answer at first

"No" I said "Not yet"

"Yet?"

"I have something I need to do before I can rest"

"Cryptic" he mused tying a band around the end of a braid to keep it in place, he paused, a hand brushed softly against the base of my neck, tracing a scar mark, I shuddered out of reflex "Sorry" he said "Hands are a little cold" no that wasn't it

"It was an implant" I told him, my hand coming up to trace the scar at the base of my neck "Cyberware to change my appearance" Lathain's fingers traced the scar slowly following my fingers

"I thought you didn't have cyberware, couldn't stand it?"

"I used to be just like you once" I told him "growing up I had the latest coms links, muscle enhancers, even implants to change my hair colour and eyes"

"Cosmetic implants, but they're expensive . . . so you"

"I was from a wealthy family yes" I confirmed "One of the wealthiest in fact" why was I telling him all this? The more people that knew about me the greater the chance was that I would be found, but I couldn't help myself "I ran away from home at fourteen, removed every trace of my existence and have spent the last seven years trying to find a way to strike back"

"Seven years ago?" Lathain was putting the pieces together

"Don't bother doing a search" I told him "Four years ago we had an Eraser remove every file of my existence; there are data bombs in place to attack anyone who goes looking for me"

"An eraser? Data bombs?" he took a step back from me to look at my face, confusion and something like suspicion "Who are you Ghost?"

This was it, do I tell him, do I come out of hiding, my name, my real name, one so long since I've heard it that I wasn't sure if it was even mine anymore, Lathain saw my reluctance

"I need to know Ghost, for me, I need to know, if you don't tell me you know I'll only go looking"

"Please, I can't . . ."

"Sylo" the name hit me hard, the look on his face, the shock, the realisation "You're Sylo Corden, the dead step daughter of Demetri Stryker, You're the dead heir to the EngenCom Mega Corp" he backed away from me, eyes fixed "You're dead, you're . . ."

"A Ghost?" I whispered

"You can't be Sylo Corden, she's dead, it was everywhere, all over the news, they found the body, gang violence, a rival Megacorp suspected, two men went to jail, hell my parents were at the funeral! They saw you! Your coffin! With you in it!" Lathain looked confused, he was almost shouting

"Your parents?" he ignored me

"Ghost" he strode over hands on my shoulders, his grip strong "This Eraser, what was his name"

"I don't know . . ."

"His call sign, something Ghost, I need to know who he is!" he seemed panicked now

"He didn't have one"

"He must have, thing Ghost, think really hard"

"I said he didn't have one!" I shook his grip; he buried his face in his hands a moment, eyes at nothing, thinking

"Something, there has to be something" he whispered, his composure gone, this wasn't the Lathain I knew, the laughing, cheeky elf, he was serious, worried, even afraid, I was afraid for him, but I didn't know why, his eyes fixed on me again, fear must have been evident on my face, he took a breath, slow and calming. "Does your Step father know you're still alive?"

"Yes" he knew all too well, two years ago he'd set a trap that Torrin had managed to rescue me from, but it had left huge scars, twenty minutes trapped in virtual reality had been years to my mind, in those "years" he had done . . . things, after my escape I refused to wear a coms device, even an old model, anything that would access the matrix, I wouldn't wear it. It was how he'd found me, someone had tipped him off about me and he'd run a programme into every coms link device to find me, so that when I put it on it would tell him exactly where I was.

"The Eraser must have told him" Lathain was thinking, talking to himself, he got up to leave

"Lathain" He paused at the door "My name, I . . .I . . ." fumbled for words

"Is safe with me" He looked me straight in the eye as he said it, there was a fire of determination there, intense, I knew he would keep his word

"Thank you" he nodded and left without a word more, leaving me alone to spend a very restless night.

The following morning I felt like myself, well, physically at least, echoes of last night's conversation still ran around my head, I packed my things, sometime in the night my clothes had been returned, my T shirt would be better off being binned or recycled, but I figured I could maybe wear it to one of those old school raves that Torrin's friends went on about so much, apparently ripped garb was big for the rave scene, a throwback of the late 20th century, people would actually buy jeans and T's that had been "fashionably" torn, idiots, what was the point in clothing that would fall apart on you? I stuffed the T into my pack anyway, my spare one was just fine if a little blood stained from a previous mission, my white camo arctic wear was covered in copper stains, I'd been close, very close, the Brothers had patched up some areas with cloth to keep the cold out.

For a moment I let myself imagine what it must be like to live without war, pain, suffering, to always put others before you, to treat friend and foe as equals. It sounded nice, I looked down at my arms and torso, the criss cross of scars, both old and new, my mould was made now, set. I was twenty one and already talking like my life was over, but that's what running did to some people, made them tired of it, I kept going because I had a purpose, but what would I do once I'd completed that task? Where would I go? What meaning would my life hold then? I would be no use in a respectable, law abiding job, I'd have no skills with people. If I survived my mission I would be wasted space, all I knew was killing, running and hiding, I was good at running, but I wasn't like Lathain who did it because he enjoyed it, or Lambast who did it out of a sense of Justice. I couldn't be a worker, my body was too badly broken to be a mother, and what kind of life could I offer a child anyway? Shadows and secrets is no world to bring a life into. Would I ever get over my past enough to trust a man with me?

I sat on the bed and fought back tears, it was times like this that I needed Torrin, but he was gone, someone had taken him from me, my rock. My body shook with the effort to compose myself, I heard a sound behind me and turned, one of the brothers was stood there, a soft leather pouch in his hands, I brushed at my eyes and stood, and hoped my eyes were not too red.

"You don't need to get up on my account" The Brother said, accented but perfect English, "I'm simply here to see to your wounds before your fellow team mates collect you"

"Oh, uhhhh Thank you" I started to flare red in embarrassment. This Brother was considerably younger than Brother Soi, early thirties perhaps, he smiled a calming smile.

"You don't need to be embarrassed, I'm assessing you magically, you wont need to undress" I relaxed a little, the Brother came across and held a hand to my stomach, eyes closed. I could feel the magic surrounding him, he was a strong mage, very strong, he paused a moment to look at me "You are worried about something?"  
"Someone" I confirmed "He was kidnapped and is being held hostage"

"And you are going to save him?" The brother asked, the flow of magic continuing

"If it kills me" I said, the Brother raised an eyebrow

"You would do this for your friend?"

"I would, he would do the same for me"

"You are sure of this"

"Positive" he seemed very curious, but not judgemental it was rather odd

"What should happen to him if you do not succeed?"

"That wont be an option, I'm not going to fail" I told him, a little shocked that I felt this, no KNEW this to be true, he smiled and withdrew his hand

"You are a strong one, you're almost fully healed, the work has taken to you well" he held out the pouch "Take this, your wizard friend requested it, but he is not of the mind to know when it needs to be used" Ok cryptic, but I took the pouch, unrolling it to show dried leaves "Tea on an empty stomach, and to help the scars you may soak your dressings in the tea" Be quick for the light crumbles the leaves and reduces its effectiveness"

"The healers herbs . . .why are you giving these to me?" I asked "Wizbit couldn't convince you yet I haven't even asked"

"You did, you just didn't ask for yourself" the Brother said, he bowed and turned to go, pausing at the door "Miss Corden there are people in this world who would use these herbs to create medicines true, but they would sell them, make people pay for them, they should be for everyone, but I fear the leaves are too fragile to survive the trip down the mountain, anywhere but here they are well suited to healing" he smiled softly "you talk much in your sleep, I would be wary of the secrets you keep" he left me there in confusion

"Thank you" I called to him. I buried the leaves in the base of my pack out of the light. If light reduced the effectiveness of the leaves then it would go some way as to explain why scientists hadn't been using it as a miracle cure, under bright laboratory lights it would be useless quickly. I wondered about his reasons that I'd asked for it, but not for myself . . . how very strange.

"Good to go?" Firefly stuck his head around the door, I nodded and packed my brush after pulling the braids from my hair, my hair now kinked and wavy I kind of liked it but pulled it back into a tail to keep it from my face. "Here" Firefly threw a set of goggles at me, my own UV filtered ones had been too badly broken in the blast, I caught them, noting the wire just visible cut at the side. "I disabled the coms device built in" he said, they're just a pair of specs, Lathain said you have an problem with electronics affecting your magic?"

Thanks Lathain

"Yeah, magic and Tech don't mix, thanks" not entirely a lie, implants were known to supress the essence of mages, some powerful mages took the hit to their magic to have the benefit of cyber ware, but others simply stuck with basic coms and that was it, anything more than that affected your magical power. All set.

At the temple entrance the Brothers were lined up, heads down with Lathain who was bowed low in thanks, Lambast could be seen walking towards the jeep outside with Wizbit, Firefly moved to bow low but said nothing, stood straight and kept walking. The first in the line was Brother Soi, such a kindly man I couldn't resist the urge to hug him, a surprised smile spread over his face and he gently tapped my shoulder in goodwill, I withdrew and bowed as low as my twinging side would allow, bowing to each Brother in turn. The brother who had given me the herbs also received a hug, as did the youngest Brother his eyes a little hopeful as I got to him, I almost laughed. The final Brother wore Yellow, very different from the red and black of the other brothers, and he looked twice the age of Brother Soi, I bowed low and he stepped to me, a shaking hand on my shoulder, he was tiny up close, head barely to my shoulder. White blind eyes stared at me, as if he could see right into my soul

"The peace that you are looking for is a long way off yet, but you can find your ending here when it is over, do not change who you are, stay true to your belief and you will not go too far wrong, Brother Emmen speaks highly of you, so I will part you with this knowledge, when God strikes let it pass through you, accept the hatred, welcome it and you will not be harmed, fight against it and you will lose" He gave me a toothless smile, and released his hand, with it went a weight I didn't know I'd been carrying. Lathain placed a hand on my shoulder, time to go. I waved my thanks and left the temple behind. I didn't know these people but somehow felt I had a place to go to when the world fell apart.

"You OK?" He asked

"Actually, I am" I said

"Look, about last night, I just"

"It's OK, we can talk about it later, when we're not busy saving people" he smiled at me and we walked to the jeep

"So what did he tell you?

"Go with the flow and come back and see us sometime" I summarised

"Tempting offer"

"Very"

"Hey you two, we don't have all day, if we're going to get to the next temple before dark we have to go now!" Lambast called

I jumped into the front of the jeep beside Wizbit and stuck my tongue out at Lathain, fuming he got into the back with Firefly, the look on his face making me think he wished my tongue would get frost bite.

The jeep started up and half sliding on fresh snow made good time up the mountain, slowing every so often when the terrain was bad, I marvelled at Lambast's driving, he seemed to know exactly where all the cracks and crevices were despite the deep snow, much of the drive was spent discussing information they had gained from the Brothers the previous night.

"Hate genetics, playing with your DNA just makes me freaking crazy" Firefly said, agreement was all around, though I had a lingering note in the back of my mind that some genetics was designed to help people, there were scientists out working out why we suddenly had Elves and Orcs, Trolls and Dwarfs in the world again after what appeared to be thousands and thousands of years, some worked on genes that would help people resist disease, and other genes that caused them, downs syndrome had all but been wiped out through screening, though some pro-lifers maintained their right to raise a child who would have difficulties. Genetics at this temple though, out of the government eye and away from protestors was the wrong kind of genetics.

It seemed some UCAS scientists had come across to find the secret of eternal life, or life after death, to try and discover what would happen if you could not die. Dangerous stuff to be playing with, the only real balance in the world was life and death, everything must eventually die, whether it was in a day for a fly or a century for a man. There were . . .stories of men that would not die, who walked on legs of bone with half their insides missing, only if the head was severed from their body would they finally lie still. Lathain had called them Zombies, undead, I had heard of Zombies as an urban myth but never come across the idea that they might actually exist, they lived only in stories for entertainment, seems someone had taken the idea in this new century now that magic was back in the world and decided to see if it was actually possible. Freaks.

The terrain bumpy but the journey uneventful I took the opportunity to nap as often as I could, gain as much of my strength back as possible, something told me I was going to need it. Firefly and Lambast talked tactics the whole way there, I think at one point even Wizbit fell asleep, uncustomary nodding off when on the move, I don't think I'd ever seen him sleep like that, the other night in the tent he'd barely slept a wink too despite being shattered as the rest of us, but then he'd used a lot of magic recently, it was possible it had tired him out even more so than usual. Lathain as always was awake and getting on people's nerves, though six hours into the drive Lambast gave up the wheel to the elf so he could take a rest, he transferred matrix data of the terrain in the hopes that Big Ears wouldn't mess up and drive us off the mountain

As the light began to dim we could see the top of a structure in the distance, it looked more like a pagoda than the stony temple we had just left.

Wizbit woke Lambast and Firefly as we approached, in the headlights a gloomy figure appeared in the near distance, we slowed as we drew nearer, armed and ready in case of hostility. The figure simply ambled slowly towards us as if it hadn't seen us.

"What in the world?" Lambast began, lowering his gun and peering out into the gloom, beside me Lathain cocked his spare pistol

"What? What is it?" I couldn't see as clearly as the Orc and elf

"Wizbit, do you recognise this magic?" Lambast asked through gritted teeth

Wizbit simply shook his head, I strained my eyes forward to the figure approaching us, the slow shuffle bringing him exasperatingly slowly towards us until I was finally able to get a good look . . .

The man coming towards us was dead, there is no other way to describe him, I don't know many magic's that will allow a man to continue walking with a hole in his chest that I could see through the other side, jagged flesh hung from the wound, the man was naked above the waist also, the cold alone should have killed him, barefoot he ploughed through the snow in shuffling steps

"He . . .he's dead" I whispered, I couldn't disguise the shaking from my voice

"Not really" Lathain said, then we could smell the man, he smelled of death and decay, his eyes milky from degradation, lips pulled back from the gums, emphasising his yellow teeth, my skin crawled "He's an undead" I looked at Lathain, partly in question, but partly because I didn't think my stomach could take in much more of the sight of the dead man. "A Zombie" Lathain clarified

"He'll be dead in a second" Lambast pulled back the hammer on his revolver and loaded the man's head full of lead, the figure dropped into the snow and stopped moving

"We'd better hurry, I have a bad feeling" Wizbit said, unlike the rest who were looking towards the trail he was looking up at the mountain ridge ahead of us directly behind the pagoda, "Some dark magic is gathering, looks like the brothers weren't wrong about this place"

"Ominous much man" Lathain said aiming into the dark beyond what I could see "There are more of them, hit the gas" Lambast took the wheel and revved the engine, we were suddenly shooting out over the snow, figures dropped around us as we sped past, victim to Lathain's bullets which went of in deafening rhythm, I tried twisting to see them to shoot but the speed we flew at made it all but impossible, behind me Firefly shot out into the oncoming night

"Left!" yelled Wizbit, Lambast automatically swung left, on our right a lightning bolt hit the ground, arcane energy spilling everywhere

"Now what?!" Lambast shouted from the wheel

"Mages" Wizbit said eyes still up he was focusing his energy into detecting where and when they would strike next, all the while Lathain and Firefly took out the walking dead around us. The pagoda before us was now a huge looming structure, the air around it hummed with magical energy, I felt sick.

"Plan?" Lambast asked

"We need to go up" Wizbit said "The lower floors are warded from attack from the outside"

"The _building_ is warded?" Lathain asked "Man I hate magic crap"

"How we getting up?" Firefly asked

"I have a grapple" I supplied

"Me too" Lambast said "K so we go up" He sped forward, dodging magic as Wizbit called out, we hit the south side of the pagoda which offered marginal protection from the mage attacks above us. There were no walking dead by the pagoda so we concentrated our efforts in climbing the sides as quickly as possible, my sides ached and I broke out into a heavy sweat as I climbed, I still needed to rest, but the thought of Torrin kept me pushing, I had to keep moving. Wizbit helped me over the edge at the top, our hopes of finding an opening on the way up had been in vain, and I took a second to catch my breath, Lathain was busy trying to open a hatch that led down to the insides of the pagoda. I was exhausted and could barely move, but stood and shuffled over anyway, Lambast looked as if he was about to say something when all hell broke loose

"Move!" Wizbit shouted racing for the edge of the pagoda, Firefly turned and sprinted for the edge with Lambast in tow, Lathain was up and running, but me, my legs seemed so slow, they couldn't move. I looked up to see the bright blue strike of lightning before it hit me.

In one single split instant I felt both agony and energy I screamed as my body filled with the arcane force, in my mind I heard the monk's words _. Let it flow through you_. Resisting the flow was too much, I would die, but to channel it, as I channel my own lightning spell . . . I screamed louder and raised my arms out to the sky before the world went black

When I opened my eyes the world was silent, Wizbit and Lathain were running hell bent towards me over the room of the pagoda, on the mountain ridge I saw red and orange flames of fires, my vision was seared with light, and closing my eyes I could see the shape of the lightning bolt that had hit me, my left side of clothing smoked ominously but I couldn't feel any pain. I could feel Wizbit's arms as he hauled me up, his mouth moved but I heard nothing, deaf.

I shook my head and told him I couldn't hear, even my own voice was deaf to me.

Lathain reached my side and reached out to hold me, electrical energy charged up around my feet and shot out at him, Wizbit withdrew his hand also as if he'd been shocked, a buzzing sound began to return to my hearing as I tried to clear my head, the smoking clothes caught my eye again and I batted at them to put out any flames. Wizbit clamped down my arms to stop me flailing before snapping back his hands again, a second shock, I could now hear muffled snippets

" . . .charged . . . "  
" . . .electric eel . . ."

"Arcane forces don't always work . . . ."

Wizbit pointed to his eyes then away, I followed the direction of his hand as he pointed to where Lambast now had the roof hatch open

" . . .hear me yet?"

"Ahh I can hear you now, muffled but yes" I said, Wizbit sighed

"How do you feel?" he asked keeping his distance

"Err . . ." I checked my self, apart from my hearing I didn't feel bad, in fact if anything I felt great my energy level was up, I could feel arcane energy flowing through me, I felt recharged "Actually, I feel great" I said

"We'd better get one of the docs to look at you when we get back, and the Kabal will probably want to take a look at you too" he said, he wouldn't stop staring at me, like I was dangerous or something

"Wizbit?" I asked "What aren't you telling me?"

"You've just been hit by a massive magical attack Ghost, you should be dead, those marks on your arm . . ." I glanced down to my left arm which glowed slightly, patches in my coat showed skin burnt with lightning shaped tattoos " . . . are only ever seen on dead people" he took another step back from me "Just who are you?" he looked worried, even a little afraid, afraid of me?

"Guys we're in" Lathain called swinging into the opening of the roof, one last glance at me and Wizbit took off after him, Firefly and Lambast already jumping in after him. Wizbit paused at the opening

"There's something not right about you Ghost" he said "And I'm going to find out what, until then you stay the hell away from me" his eyes were cold, distant, he looked at me like I was a stranger. It hurt, truly hurt to see him look at me like that. But what did he mean? What was wrong with me? I felt fine, I felt better than fine, energised, ready for anything.

I watched Wizbit jump down the hole into the pagoda. I stayed on the roof a moment fighting back tears, stay the hell away from me, had been his words. I had just found people that I might just call friend and I was loosing them already. I looked up to the mountain ridge with its fires still burning, what had happened? I wish I knew. I shook myself and followed the rest of the party.

The room below was empty, but an open door showed me the way the group had gone. Several robed men lay dead or unconscious by the doorway, the first wave of resistance. I moved to the opening and looked out. The pagoda was dark and smelled heavily of herbs and incense. It was also amazingly warm despite the snow outside. Ahead I could see the shadow of someone moving sneakily to the centre of the pagoda where there was a huge opening. I slipped up to the centre, avoiding the figure, it was most likely one of ours but I couldn't be sure in this low light.

The opening looked down over the huge height of the building to the ground floor below. Thousands of candles lit the ground floor, the light strong enough to give a little illumination even here. The ground looked at first to be black in colour, with red surrounding it, straining my eyes however I managed to pick out the details. The large black circle in the centre wasn't the floor, it was a hole in the ground that disappeared into the blackness.

The sea of red were robed men, each one bald, their faces painted. They surrounded the circle, each holding a candle; the sound of their haunted chanting filled the air. They were performing a ritual of some description.

I was amazed that they seemed to be so calm, they must be aware we'd broken in, surely they weren't just going to let us waltz in and steal the dragon artefact?

A deep bellowing roar sounded from the floors below, shaking the flooring, not good. I heard Lathain call out, already several floors below, taunting the monster in the dark that I could not see. I readied a spell to fire out should I see the creature, a vice like grip clung to my wrist, starling me, Wizbit's face appeared out of the shadows

"Don't" he said "You've no idea what that blast has done to your magic, your aura is unstable. No magic" he said

"But what good am I if I can't cast?" I asked "I'm not well enough to . . ."

"No Magic!" he insisted "I've cleared this level of enemies, you'll stay here until we leave"

"But I . . ." I was feeling helpless now

"No Ghost" Wizbit warned releasing my wrist "No magic, no fighting, you stay here" He jumped over the railings into open air, landing lightly on a disc that I could not see which guided him down several floors. He left me alone at the top of a pagoda filled with people who were no doubt trying to hurt people that I had come to care about. No magic? Don't fight?

My legs crumpled beneath me as tears fell from my eyes, I really was useless, I had been the entire trip, all I had managed to do was get myself hurt, I'd foolishly gone chasing after an enemy without back up, I hadn't rested as I had been told only to cause further injuries and I'd managed to disrupt my magical aura so much that Wizbit no longer felt that I was safe to be around. I was completely out of my depth here. Lambast and Firefly were fighters, Lathain a hacker, Wizbit a proper mage, what could I possibly give to the group?

"I'm sorry Tor" I whispered "I came here thinking to save you but I only ended up in trouble instead" A second roar echoed around the pagoda over the sound of the chanting below, I heard Lathain laughing. I glanced between the railings down to the levels below, seeing a quick flash of Lathain before a dark shadow; impossibly huge flew by as well. What was that thing?

My mind suddenly on the here and now and the monster that chased Lathain, Wizbit could stuff his staying safe. Gunfire erupted in the level below where Lathain had been, twin sets of rifles. Lambast and Firefly had their own enemies to deal with. Well I wasn't staying here. I was going to help in what ever way I could. I could feel electricity building in the base of my spine, I breathed deeply. I hadn't cast and I didn't want to unless I knew it was going to do damage, my magic was unstable. So no magic for me, I fought to clear my mind until the charge subsided.

So electric eel, but there was of course . . .

I dug into my pack and removed the hard case that held my shock bolt heads; quickly I screwed these heads onto the arrows in my quiver and checked my bow, still good. I raced for the stairs, arrow at the ready should I need it. The next floor down was littered with bodies; I didn't waste time checking all the rooms, but headed to the next stairwell.

The lower steps had been smashed away, probably by whatever was hunting down Lathain, some of the pillars were also broken. I raced to the next set of stairs, taking them two at a time, ignoring the pain in my sides as I went. The ground shook beneath me and I nearly stumbled over. I paused a moment in my headlong dash. I could hear bellowing out below me; nearly there.

At the centre shaft once again I circled carefully, bow half drawn ready. There in the shadow was the huge monster making so much noise. I let loose an arrow and was rewarded with a cry of pain.

"How many arrows is that?!" I heard Lathain taunting in a mock childish voice

"One!" the monster growled as a second arrow hit him in the shoulder, the shock points activated sending a current from one point to the other. The monster's muscles seized up and he hit the floor, teeth gritted.

"Thanks" Lathain called, his cheeky grin appearing between the railings for a moment, the monster was up again, rolling onto his feet "Now how many?" he shouted to the creature in his mock teacher voice.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him "You'll just piss him off" and the size of this guy meant he would do a lot of damage with one swing of his great arms.

"He's numerically challenged" Lathain sniggered

"What?"

"He's got this thing where if you tell him to count something he HAS to do it, I mean what kind of weird form of autism is that? So I'm distracting him and throwing him off, makes him pause and gives me an opening" Wow, for once Lathain's taunting huge trap was actually useful. I loosed an arrow into the rising form; a second soon followed pinning the brute again.

"Gotta love a raging putrescent mongoloid" he muttered about to make his way over to the still form

"Wait" I hissed racing to the steps to join him on the floor below

"Wait? For what?" Lathain asked but paused anyway

"What did you call him?"

"Putrescent?"

"No after that"

"A mongoloid?"

"That's it, aren't mongoloids suppose to be brainless, mindless brutes?"  
"Where are you going with this?" Lathain was looking at me confused as I made my way over to him, the monstrous form was still, breathing steady, unconscious"

"Well if he's suppose to be brainless then he's showing amazing intelligence, means he's not a monster"

"And your point is?"

"I don't want you to kill him"

"What?!" Lathain looked as if I'd gone stir crazy "He's a monster"

"He's a meta human" I corrected "Which means he has thoughts and feelings, he's intelligent, which means he has a soul, which means unless he tries to kill me I'm not going to kill him"

But he tried to kill me" Lathain defended

"Oh and I suppose you didn't start it?" I hissed, prepping another shock loaded arrow

"Actually I didn . . ." he trailed off and his face fell "fair point, but he'll still try to kill us" I looked across at the mongoloid

"I don't think he'll be hurting anyone for a while, besides, he might remember you let him live"

"The Lion and the thorn huh?" Lathain said, he didn't sound convinced but he sheathed his tomahawk non the less.

"Thanks" I whispered

"I'm only doing it because you asked nicely" he said, he took a small step from me as if he was remembering something, maybe I was putrescent too . . .

"What?"

"Oh nothing, just Wizbit said you were charged, and on the roof you electrocuted me"

"Sorry" I said looking into the dark, had I heard something?

"No need to be sorry, Wizbit said you can't help it, but it played up big time with my . . ." he tapped the side of his head. Figures, Lathain had so much tech in him a large surge could overblow his circuits leaving him not much better off than the now unconscious mongoloid. The ground beneath us shook and I almost lost my footing. Lathain's usually helpful steady hands were kept well back; obviously he didn't want to risk another shock. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach that my juice boost would cause me a lot more grief than I had first imagined, it had alienated Wizbit, and now Lathain was avoiding me too.

"I thought that was caused by the mongoloid?" I whispered Lathain shook his head

"Nope, it's something bigger" he crept to the railing to look down to the ground floor "Much bigger"

"Come on we've got to make it downstairs to the altar, Wizbit is convinced the Dragon artefact is displayed there, he's trying to get close enough to take it."

"Invisibility" I murmured

"Yeah, sneaky son of a bitch, to tell you the truth it wouldn't be a bad idea to go unnoticed for a while" another eruption of gunfire from Lambast and Firefly could be heard over the chanting as Lathain gave me a pointed look. I shook my head

"Wizbit said no magic" I told him, he sneered as if he couldn't really care less what Wizbit thought was dangerous

"How are you feeling as far as running is concerned?" he asked noting my burnt clothing

"Not sure I can run much, think I'll stay up high and provide cover fire" I told him.

The ground shook again and a roaring bellow echoed out through the pagoda, the chanting changed pitch and intensity, and below us the seas of red robes rose and fell as they bowed to their knees

"That doesn't sound good" I whispered

"Wait here and keep an eye on things, I'll see what I can find out" before I could protest Lathain had gone, slipping quick and quiet into the darkness of the pagoda. The roar was heard again, I tried to keep my mind open to the surroundings, keeping an eye on the floors below so I could offer a few choice shots of help, but my eyes were drawn to the centre of the circle of monks. Was it just me or was something moving down in the huge crater at it's centre? I strained my eyes to see better. The sound of gunfire had stopped and all now that could be heard was the chanting monks and the scrap of earth and rock. A small green light was flung into the pit; a glow stick from one of the guys no doubt, its fall went unnoticed by the monks who now were laid on their knees, heads down.

The green light fell, illuminating the sides of the pit as it went before bouncing onto the bottom . . . no not the bottom, it landed on something coming UP the cavern sides! The glow stick slid and fell further briefly illuminating a large tusked face, red eyes and dark armoured skin. I heard Lathain's voice shout out over the noise of the chanting

"Run!" he shouted, panic in his voice "Demon, they've summoned a fucking demon!" In an instant I saw Wizbit appear by the alter removing something wrapped in cloth and tucking it into his coat before he disappeared from view again. Lambast and Firefly hit the ground floor and I could see them racing towards the main entrance, bullets now spent they took out the guards they encountered with large combat knives

"Ghost get out of there!" I heard Lathain before he too appeared on the ground floor. I stood to go, turning to find a monk with a large knife trying to sneak up on me, too close to use my bow I improvised and thrust the arrow into his side by hand, he grunted and fell as the residual shock energy hit him causing him to convulse, the electricity bit at my skin too, but oddly I felt no pain from it. Not good, behind me I heard the roar again; the sides of the pagoda shook. Stairs, I needed stairs.

Looking about I saw a set to the left and ran as fast as I could down them, the floor beneath me shook and jolted and I missed my footing, falling the last four steps and landing crumpled in a heap at the bottom. I righted myself quickly as the roar came again. It sounded so close now.

Suddenly the light went out, I looked up to see a huge clawed hand the size of a truck raised up and swing down onto the floor I was on, huge car sized claws smashed through the wooden floors just feet from where I was stood. It was climbing out of the pit!

I tried to race around to the next set of stairs, but the twin hand came up and knocked the flooring away, taking the stairs with it. Crap, I was trapped!

Below me the monks who had spent so much of their time chanting to summon this beast now flailed and screamed, running in all directions, the look of utter panic on their faces. Another huge clawed hand rose from the pit and came to rest on the pagoda floor, atop several of the poor monks.

The grapple line!

If I could just get back onto the roof I could get down from the outside, I sprinted up the stairs I had come down on, one hand nervously holding the rails for support as my free hand swung my bow over my back. Weapons were no good here.

My sides ached and breathing was laboured as I reached the third from top floor, then a pair of huge wings blotted out the light to extend out, they cut through the flooring, ripping out at each side, I rolled to dodge the splinters and beams that fell as they burst from the sides of the pagoda. The stairs before and behind me were obliterated; now a rain of wood splinters that would serve little use other than as toothpicks.

The floor at my feet started to tip as the pillars beneath it shattered; I started to slide towards the central opening. I pulled my knife from my belt and dug hard into the wood to stop my fall, only just halting before I swung out over the pit

The demon at its centre was huge; almost the full height of the pagoda already and still it was not fully from the pit. Surrounding the pit the chanters were in disarray, many dead from the falling debris, others turning tail and running, clearly this had not gone the way they had expected it to go. The prone form of the mongoloid was sliding ever closer to the edge too, but I could not help him, I couldn't even help myself. The wings stretched further raining wood down on me, I covered my head to try and protect it, but my body was battered and bruised by the falling debris.

The sound of metal thudding caught my attention; about five foot to my left the grappling hook, once attached to the roof was now on the floor sliding towards the opening! I swung my legs up to try and get a grip on the tilted floor, managing to lift myself up so my foot now rested on the blade embedded in the floor, I readied my second knife, this was my only shot, the grapple skittered ever closer and I half slid, half leapt towards it, snatching it in the tips of my fingers, instantly I began to slide to the gaping hole, I buried my knife into the wood to halt my fall, heaving my body up so I could be stable and use both hands. The grapple was unwound and I fought to get it reattached and secure so I could fire it again. The rope was incomplete, only half of the amount it had originally carried. I would have to jump the rest. The ground shook tipping the floor further and I fought to keep my foothold, the blade beneath my grip snapped and I was sliding towards the pit and the demon within it!

I slid towards the opening, took aim at a pillar opposite and pulled the trigger, prayer on my lips that it would hit its target. As the grapple head fired out into space the huge head of the demon appeared in view. The grapple swung over the lower canines of the demon missing its target, too late I hit the edge and was flying out into oblivion.

I screamed as I fell, clinging to the grapple gun when suddenly the line went taunt and I was swinging! I glanced up for a second to find the grapple attached to the tusk of the huge monstrous demon! Already I swinging low, now two floors from the ground, my body bounced painfully from the demon's chest as I swung towards the pagoda wall. Its thin paper like walls offered no resistance as I hit them at speed flying out through the partition into the open air outside. Luckily falling debris from the roof missed me as I let go of the grapple, I hit the deep snow hard and rolled, hitting a slope I rolled down, gathering speed and snow until finally I came to a rest. Ever muscle hurt and I shakily got to my feet, I rolled away from broken beams that scattered out around the pagoda. This was not good; the demon was huge, now fully out of its pit it dominated my view, spreading out its wings, flexing them as if testing their strength.

"Ghost!" I heard Firefly calling my name, seeing the Orc running in the direction of the mountains "Caves!" I wasted no time in brushing myself down and racing towards the mountain. A dark shadow fell over me and I looked up to see the huge foot of the demon coming down, something hit my shoulder sending me rolling, knocking me to the floor. The huge foot came down crushing the snow mere inches from my face, I got up to find Lathain pulling my arms to help me rise.

"We've gotta stop it" he said looking up

"How?" I shouted at him over the roar of the demon "It's impossible, it's jut too big!"

"I'm calling in the cavalry" Lathain said "But we have to distract it"

"Distract it?"

"Just for the next two minutes" Lathain said pulling me away from the mountains, away from the safety of the caves.

"What about the others?" I shouted, I knew Firefly was safe, but what about Lambast? Wizbit?"

"Wizbit is running for some caves with Firefly" he panted pulling me towards the jeep, which remarkably had missed being crushed by the debris from the pagoda. "Lambast had to take out a red samurai guard"

"A red samurai?" I asked, curious that a red samurai would be here in the Tibetan mountains when the last time we had seen one was in the Brazilian rainforest.

"Yup, he was not impressed, but I just got a pip from him to say he's fine"

"So what are WE doing?" I asked jumping into the jeep and heaving a few pieces of wood out of the back whilst Lathain took the driving seat.

"We are waiting for Deef's people to fire a giant laser at this demon, and we need to keep it from going too far or the calculations to hit the damn thing will be wrong"

"So how are we going to slow it down?"

"I have no idea" Lathain kicked the jeep into gear and sped off after the demon, huge as it was it's strides were massive, allowing it to cover quite a distance in a single stride, however it was also moving very slowly which was helping us bide time.

"How are they tracking it?" I asked

"Satellite imaging" Lathain replied weaving now beneath the huge form trying to race up in front.

"But isn't there a delay on that?" I asked, "surely a direct transmission would be better"

"You're right but I don't have a coms I could use, and we'd need to find a way to attach it . . ." he trailed off "GHOST!" he shouted, a huge grin splitting over his face "You're brilliant!"

"What?!" I asked surprised "I didn't do anything"

"oh you beaut, is my back pack still back there?" he shouted swerving to avoid another great foot, I glanced around me, spotting Lathain's pack I pulled it out from beneath the others

"Yes!" I shouted back

"Right, dig around in there and you should find a droid, a small steel box" he re-iterated

"I know what a droid looks like!" I shouted at him scrabbling through the pack, tipping the contents out into the back seat, some pieces of clothing catching the air and flying out over the snow as I went, at the bottom of the pack a small steel cube clattered out, it seemed familiar "Got it" I shouted

"Excellent, now get over here and take the wheel" he yelled "And try not to drive us over any cliffs" he added, My face flushed scarlet but I clambered over the seats to clumsily take the wheel from Lathain.

"Ow" he complained as a shock leapt from my hand to his "Keep your charge to yourself"

"Sorry!" I snarked back.

He jumped nimbly into the back seat and began to tinker with the box, his concentration so great he seemed oblivious to the huge demon we were chasing, the ground beneath us was bumpy and I nearly lost my seat several times, it seemed an age before Lathain declared the droid ready

"What are you going to do?" I asked

"Just watch" he said, the little droid sprung to life and I remembered then where I had last seen it, in the rainforest, we had collected it from the wreckage of our ship, he'd had it this whole time. The little droid hovered, easily keeping pace with the jeep, it beeped and flew upwards to the face of the demon and was quickly lost from sight.

"Deef?" Lathain yelled, hand to his wrist on a coms device "Pick up you cowardly bastard!"

"I thought you said you didn't have a second com?" I shouted over the seat at him, swerving wildly to avoid another huge footfall

"I did until SOMEONE magically zapped me and knocked my internal com into a fritz" he snapped at me, ooopps that someone would be me.

"Deef, I need you to log on to the transmission source I'm about to give you" he shouted, I heard a soft crackle but couldn't make out the words "Target that and you'll hit the fucker" more crackling. I swerved the jeep to avoid a boulder size chunk of snow that was kicked up by the demon

"Ghost, turn around, we're getting out of here" Lathain shouted at me. immediately I hit the brakes and spun the jeep, a cascade of snow springing out, Lathain clambered into the passenger seat "We don't have long before they switch on the beam, but at least it'll hit even if he's moving, so we can get out of here" The jeep bounced and raced away back towards the pagoda.

Suddenly a wall of snow hit us from the left, a mini avalanche caused by the passing of the demon, strong enough to knock the jeep to its side. Firmly strapped down I was bounced around in my seat. Lathain was thrown from the jeep, landing ten foot away, he stood, a little shaky but otherwise alright.

Behind us the demon roared, I twisted to try and get a look, but could not see, the rear view mirror clouded with snow I tried to wipe it clear. The demon was swinging at something in the air, turning round in a circle to swat at something.

"Not good" Lathain said as he waded through the fresh snow to me. I tried to fumble for the belt catch, but the tipping of the jeep had trapped the belt and I was stuck, also without my daggers. "You O.K?" Lathain asked

"Stuck" I told him trying to wriggle clear, my bulky clothes a hindrance

Lathain's head suddenly snapped up towards the Demon "Shit!" He ran out from the jeep backwards towards the pagoda, I looked up to see something flying through the air towards him, he jumped, catching the projectile and landing nimbly in the snow, his face was one of panic

"What?" I asked "What is it?" Lathain looked up at me then, his eyes wide with fear. In his hands he held the remains of the droid, the transmitter blinked red, he was now ground zero.

"I'm sorry Ghost" he said looking from me to the demon which was stood still waving an arm at an imaginary blip

"Comm Deef, tell him to abort!" I shouted struggling with the strap

Lathain shook his head and held up his wrist, the coms screen was dark and cracked, broken from his fall from the jeep, there would be no comms, the laser would fire right onto us. Lathain's face turned from fear to one of grim determination, his eyes sorrowful he gave me a nod

"Look after Lambast and Wizbit for me Ghost, they're kind of all I have" Then he started to run. The realisation hit me, he was going to take the transmitter back to the demon! he was going to die so that the beast could be destroyed.

"Lathain!" I screamed "no wait!" I tried again to get free from the jeep, if only I had a knife! A blade, something to cut the straps. Try as I might I could not get free. In the rear view I saw the figure of Lathain race towards the demon who had now turned back to the pagoda, he would reach it in moments. I pulled and yanked pulling open my clothes to try and loosen them enough to get out. Lathain was going to die. He was going to sacrifice himself, he shouldn't even be on the mission, no one had been taken from him, he was just here because his friends had needed a hand, friends, he was. . . he was my friend.

Tears streamed down my face freezing to my skin as I pulled on my harness. Above me a light began to appear and grow brighter, the laser, an instant later there was a flash of heat and pure white light. The demon screamed then the sound was abruptly cut off, the smell of burnt hair and flesh reached me causing me to wretch. The ground around me was melting in the heat causing the jeep to tip further, a blast of heat over the ground had formed a channel of melted snow which dipped down nearly ten foot to the rock bed beneath, the jeep was now tipping over towards this channel, this was going to hurt.

I pulled and twisted, managing to get the first of the two banded strap over my head giving me some space, just as the jeep slid and tipped, then began to roll, sideways, spinning me over and over before landing upside-down on the rock bed. No longer moving I relaxed my shoulders, now against rock, having tucked my body into the seat so the windscreen and seat header would protect me. If I'd been having trouble getting out before I was certainly in trouble with it now. I was crushed into a ball unable to move. Lathain was gone, we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with now no transport to get us out of here. And I still seemed no closer to getting Torrin back than I had been at the start of this crazy adventure. I held back the tears which threatened to fall, they would only freeze and cause more discomfort.

"Need a hand?" a voice asked, a slim hand coming into view holding a slight blade, but . . .

The blade cut through the last belt strap causing me to land on the rock upside-down, the jeep began to move as it was partially lifted, just enough for me to slide my legs out and wriggle free into the open air. A wicked grin and green eyes looked down at me. Lathain!

"You're alive!" I shouted, trying to stand, Lathain dropped the jeep side and lent a hand.

"No-one is as surprised as me" he said "I reached the badass, threw the droid at him and pegged it, hell I wasn't even sure if this was going to work, but next thing I know I'm flying through the air, clothes on fire and demon boy is roasty toasty" I flung my arms around him in an awkward hug, he hissed from the shock and I withdrew, looking at him in his burnt clothes, his hair on one side was mildly singed too, and the skin over his right hand was burnt and blistered, he looked a mess.

"What now?" I asked huddled, wrapping my arms around myself

"Well I say we salvage what we can from the jeep and hurry up out of this channel before the sides freeze making them impossible to climb" I looked around, the sides were still flowing water, making the sides slick, he had a point, if they froze now it would be smooth, with no grips. Without another word we hefted open the jeep door and pulled as much gear as possible. My coat was torn and useless but my spare thermals were still in my pack so I layered up, I retrieved my last remaining dagger and stuffed as much useful debris from the other packs into my back pack in case we couldn't come back. Lathain did the same, the rest of my glowsticks were cracked, I gathered the ones I could reach and we strapped them to our packs to make us easier to see.

"Time to go" Lathain said "the ice is forming" sure enough the water flow was subsiding and the floor was already becoming slippery, we went straight up the side rather than finding an easier climbing place, if we spent too long down here we'd be stuck until the rest of the party found us, but having driven so far from the pagoda chasing the demon it could take a while for them to reach us. As an after thought I pulled the tent pegs from my pack to aid in climbing, they were useful to chip into the ice close to the top. It was only a short climb up but it was hard work with so much on our backs. We rested for a moment

"Injuries?" Lathain asked I shook my head

"Just the usual bumps bruises and recovering internal bleeds" I joked, as Lathain packed ice around his hand. "I'd heal you but Wizbit . . ."

"Yeah I know Wizbit said no magic" he interrupted, he looked grumpy "Come on, lets start making tracks" In the dark and with heavy snow it took nearly two hours to get to the pagoda, Lathain leading the way. A light up ahead guided us to a cave set into the mountain, as we approached Lathain drew his tomahawk, at this point I couldn't feel my fingers to use any of my weapons.

Firefly's face appeared in the opening, gun raised in idle threat as there were no longer any bullets to fire, but a stranger would not know that. The Orc cracked a grin and hollered to the rest of the gang, we gladly slipped into the inviting warmth the fire in the cave provided, in one corner several monks also huddled, their faces pale and panicked

"Magical brainwashing" Lambast grunted as I stared at them "They didn't know what they were doing" all told there were less than twenty of them

"The rest?"

"Dead, crushed in the rubble mostly, there might be some survivors but we don't have the equipment to get them out, and in this cold they wont survive very long, if we started digging we could either cause a second collapse or open up the area they're in taking the heat away, Wizbit and Firefly are taking a look in the morning"

"I want to help" I said, truly I did, I didn't feel as if I'd been of any help at all so far, causing more trouble than I had solved, Lambast took my arm in his huge paws and looked them over

"Maybe, we'll see if frostbite doesn't set in first" I handed him my pack

"here, I gathered up what I could from the truck" he simply grunted in thanks and emptied my pack, sorting through the ration packs and heating gels we had brought with us, he did the same to Lathain's gatherings.

"Wow you managed to haul quite the load Casper" Lathain said looking at the magazine clips, thermal blankets and even a whole tent, there was even a roll of tools and the rope from the grapple that I had retrieved and the camp burner

"Well at least she carried USEFUL stuff" Lambast growled indicating the scattering of things Lathain had picked up, the elf merely shrugged and went to go sit closer to the fire. "You did well Ghost" Lambast said, he seemed to realise that I was feeling in a rut and that any praise would be welcomed.

The ration packs were split sparingly, shared with the surviving monks, bullets were handed out and spare clothing was given to layer up, we even found a spare set of gloves which I pulled onto my frozen fingers gratefully. All in all it had been a trying few days, I wasn't sure what the plan was, I don't think Lathain or the others knew either, for now it would be best to rest and gather some fresh ideas in the morning.

"You should sleep" Wizbit's voice hovered over me, I withdrew the blade in my hand

"You shouldn't sneak up on me" I told him

"And you should actually sleep instead of dozing, you need to rest" he sat beside me looking into the fire. "You shouldn't be afraid of your nightmares" he said

"I don't want to talk about it" I told him, turning over so my back was to him

"Listen Ghost I'm sorry about before, on the roof, it's just what hit you . . ." he trailed off trying to find the words "It's not something natural, it's a spell designed to destroy, made with hate and anger and everything dark in this world, it's very nature is to kill." He placed a tentative hand on my shoulder, sighing as I flinched away from his touch. "I've never seen anyone survive that kind of hate Ghost, never, it shouldn't happen, you should be dead"

"Maybe they call me Ghost for a reason" I whispered "I'm already dead"

"I didn't mean it like that" he pleaded "I just . . .I just don't understand you sometimes, you barely have control over your magic, the simplest spells go array and yet when it really matters you can generate such power it's incredible. If you were a mage with my order you'd have been taught control at such a young age, you'd even have surpassed me by now I'm sure, but still . . . " he sighed again and I reluctantly turned to face him, he looked utterly confused and a little abash "I worry that the reason you survived is because you're too pure of heart to be affected by that kind of thing, in which case you shouldn't be leading this life, if you turned to healing then you could work miracles, magic comes from the heart Ghost, when it's pure it's stronger than anything" he was asking me to leave the shadows? If only he knew, I shook my head

"I'm sorry Wizbit" I told him "I'm not pure of heart, I have a hatred inside me that will someday likely destroy me, and I use _that,_ not love or peace to fuel my magic, I'm sorry, I'm not what you think I am" I turned away from him again, pulling the cover over me, the end to the conversation, I tried not to let the tears show but they fell unchecked despite my efforts, behind me I heard Wizbit sigh and move away.

Sleep that night was filled with nightmares of my step father, Emmet, Hanson's death, dreams of the white room with tiles and my arms in chains, the taste of copper in my mouth. I felt an energy building in me, power, hot, intense, bordering on painful. I started awake, there was no sign of the monks or Wizbit, the only other occupant in the room was Lathain, tying a fresh bandage over his burnt hand.

"You know you should really see a shrink about those dreams of yours" he said not looking up, the bandage slipped again and he cursed, as cold as the cave was even with the fire I slid from the warmth of the sleeping bag to help; ignoring the feeling of pressure that still clung from my dreams.

"Why didn't Wizbit heal this?" I asked, mostly to myself but the elf answered anyway

"He tried, I've too much technology in me for his magic to work sometimes, that and he's exhausted" he added, he pulled his hand away from my outstretched fingers as he looked up "Errr Ghost . . ." he said, his voice concerned

"What?" I followed his gaze to my left arm; it was glowing, light showing through the fabric of my shirt

"That doesn't look normal, tell me that isn't normal Ghost" Lathain sounded afraid, edgy. I pulled off my shirt to get a better look, Lathain turning his head face flushed

"Not good" I whispered, pulling my shirt back on "Where's Wizbit?" I asked Lathain

"Err, he's at the wreckage with the monks looking for survivors" I was already on my way out of the cave, grabbing my coat as I went racing over the snow, ahead the remains of the pagoda loomed, at it's base three covered figures, bodies from the wreckage

"Wizbit!" I yelled as loud as I could, figures stood to attention and started towards me, the pressure inside me was building, crippling my legs and causing me to falter in my headlong run

"What is it?!" He called racing over meeting me half way

"The marks . . .pressure" I panted pulling off my coat and shirt to show him, he back pedalled a foot

"Bad, very bad" he muttered

"No shit!" I shouted at him trying to keep calm, the pressure building "Wizbit the pressure is building so high, I'm not sure I can cope" I looked at his panicked eyes, he had no idea what to do, maybe this is what killed people from these attacks, not the initial attack but the magical energy it generated within one body was too much for a single soul to take, it had taken a dozen mages to cast and one low class mage would stand no chance with twelve times the energy any one person should contain "I'm scared" I whispered my admittance

Wizbit's features soften and he took a step forward, trying to show some calm, some solidity in what could well be my last moments

"I'm scared too" he said "now lets think this through logically, you say it's like pressure?" I nodded the pain now too much to speak "Ok, and it feels like magical build up?" again I nodded, my knees gave way and I hit the cold snow, Wizbit moved forwards but daren't not touch me "O.K when you cast do you get similar feeling? Or do you simply visualise the effect?"

"What?!" I snapped, my body bending as I tried to keep the energy in

"This is IMPORTANT ghost" Wizbit said, he looked up at someone approaching, but I could not see who, "If you cast using visual techniques in your mind then I can't help you, but if you feel the building of pressure as you cast then you might be able to vent it through a spell"

"But you said no magic" A voice said, Lathain, why was he here?

"I was WRONG alright!" Wizbit snapped "Ghost, cast a spell, any spell, something that forces energy from you, a blast, a bolt, a shockwave, ANYTHING!" The pain was overwhelming, my vision blurring I reached out a shaking hand, my mind a riot I tried to focus enough to cast, my mind blank, I was dimly aware that Wizbit was pulling Lathain away, maybe it was because I was going to explode, loose control over my magic, I had learnt so much from the Kabal about control, but I still had a long way to go, my spells were still weak, still sporadic, but this one, this one had to be done right.

"Please" I whispered as I let the spell loose, my head filled with images of Torrin, my constant in my life, but there were other faces too, Emmet, Hanson, Doc, Amm, then Lathain, Lambast, Wizbit, even Firefly, all people I called friend, was this my life flashing before my eyes? was this how I would go? With images of Lathain's broken face after our jungle campaign, the look of Lambast's fallen face as his weapons had been removed from him, Firefly by the river, Wizbit in his concern last night, black enveloped me.

"Ghost, hey Ghost, come on wake up" someone was standing over me, lightly slapping my face, Wizbit looked down at me "You did it Ghost, you survived" I blinked to clear my vision

"I'm not dead?" I asked

"Nope" Lathain's face joined Wizbit's in my field of vision

"But I'm cold everywhere" I mumbled Wizbit laughed, it was a beautiful sound, not one I realised I had ever heard

"You're lying half naked in the snow" he explained, it was the naked that caught my attention, sitting bolt upright scrabbling for my shirt, flushing beetroot.

"If I find out you two did . . ." I trialled off, damn I hurt everywhere, but as I looked at my arm I was relieved to see it was no longer glowing.

"Relax" Wizbit said lending me a hand to get up, he offered me his hand! "Now I figure that the pressure might come back occasionally" he said "Maybe you'll be prone to electric shocks and the like, so if you get the feeling the pressure is returning you need to vent it somehow" he said "Little and often" he warned "Big outbursts could be dangerous, and you'll have to steer clear of major electrical items, you could cause screw ups" he handed me my coat, flashing me a rare smile "But you're alive" he said, I couldn't help but grin, I was alive.

"Well alive until we freeze to death up here" Lathain butted in "We've no transport, and not enough food to last the trip back, not after feeding the monks too" he was right

"Coms?" I asked, Lathain shook his head,

"Fried, and I can't fix one with my hand like this"

"And magic wont heal that" Wizbit said, my mind suddenly clicked

"What about herbs?" I asked

"Herbs?" the question in unison

"From the monks, I mean the second temple" I clarified

"But we don't have any, and it's a huge distance" Wizbit began, he caught the look in my eye "You have some don't you?" I nodded

"Sorry, they told me not to tell you about it" I confessed, already making my way back to the cave.

"I need some to take back with me" he said, I shook my head

"There's only enough for one treatment and if Lathain doesn't have a working hand then we don't have a working com that's powerful enough to send for help" I told him, Wizbit clenched his fists, obviously irritated but conceded.

We reached the cave Wizbit having turned back to help with the search efforts, mumbling about the injustice of monk life or whatever, he lowered me to the floor, having supported me much of the distance, I was exhausted

"So you're not 'live' then?" Lathain asked as I sat at the fire making the blend, sitting away from the light to protect the delicate leaves

"Not at the moment I don't think" I told him

"Oh, O.K. well just let me know when you are" he said it in jest but it made me realise that anything that was between me and Lathain beyond a comrade would now no longer happen, I was too dangerous to be around someone who was full of technology, the thought was both saddening and also a mild relief, I hadn't liked the idea of intimacy because of my past, so it was a relief to know that the one guy I'd have considered it with was now out of bounds, but it was also a little saddening as it meant my options were limited. Given my fragile nature it was probably best anyway. I applied the salve to his bandages and gave him a mug to drink. He dutifully and expectedly pulled a funny face at the taste, but settled back to rest it off anyway.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked

"Well I'm going to see if I can maybe figure out a way to get us out of here" I said, I'll take a scout around the place, the monks here must use some kind of trade network to get their food stores up here, I'll go ask around and see what I can find out. Maybe I'll find some pieces for you to use to fix the comm" I tidied up the cups and bowl, pushing them down into my pack, I hoped Lathain hadn't noticed the remainder of the herbs, there had been enough for more than one treatment, but I felt I owed the monks not to let Wizbit know; if Lathain needed more then I'd work it into his bandages again, but for now it would stay in the small leather satchel.

I joined the others at the broken pagoda; Wizbit did not look pleased that I'd ventured out again so soon after venting my charge. "I thought I could help" I told him, he shook his head.

"Not really, you should rest" he said, I told him I was trying to find pieces to fix the com unit, "I've got my com unit, it's range isn't so great thought, a local one, but maybe he can use the parts" he called over Firefly and Lambast, they handed over their relevant com units. I was careful not to let any of the units touch my skin, a move that did not go unnoticed by Wizbit "You charged again?" he asked

"No" I told him, "but I don't want to risk frying them anyway" not an outright lie, what I didn't want to do was get my DNA on the com unit in case it was a model that transmitted my location to my stepfather. . . DNA transmission . . . "are any of these burner units?" I asked "made in the last two years?"

Wizbit cocked his head to one side "not mine, I've had it for at least four years" he looked up to the others Firefly said his was only six months old, military tech but it had been blended with a runner's com when he'd left the troops, "why do you ask?"

"Because it might be the key to getting us a signal" I said, I left them to their musings and headed straight back to Lathain, I handed over the com units. "I have an idea"

Three hours passed before we were ready to go, Lathain had pulled Firefly's com unit to pieces, hooked up to a palm pad, the screen broken and fractured but working, Lathain had pinged Deef's coordinates. "if the sucker wants his precious cargo he'll have to come and collect it, let's just hope the signal is strong enough to piggy back the message" Lathain looked at me hard "you realise that Deef will find out who you are" he said "if you're lucky he won't know what the signal really is, but he could decipher it, maybe even stop it getting back to your step father"

"I'm kind of counting on that part" I told him

"You know we don't have to do it this way" he said "given enough time I could probably set this up to send a signal enough to get help"

"We don't really have the time" I said "with the monks as well our food rations are pretty beat, and we've not been able to drag much from the wreckage except more men which only exasperates the problem, unless you want to start eating toasted Demon then I think this is our best shot" I was talking quickly, my nerves showing, I let out a breath "O.K let's do this"

Lathain handed me the com unit, all I would need to do is touch the sensors to send the signal, Lathain would monitor the trace on the palm pad. My fingers moved over the cold steel, suddenly the palm pad lit up.

"it's working" Lathain said "keep your hands still, I don't know if the connection needs you to stay in contact" I shuddered but did as he said, after ten agonising seconds he nodded at me "O.K hand it over" I all but threw it at him to get it away from me, he looped the device around his head and grinned. "Deef you sick perverted bastard" he said, wow what a way to gain attention. "So glad you could join us, now if you want your precious dragon elixir of obvious evil intent then I suggest you get your ass over to these mountains and get it, oh, you can pick us up too whilst you're at it" he paused as he listened to Deef "you too darling, but there's a mighty deep hole in the ground and I'm not so sure my pockets are deep enough to stop this baby falling in" Lathain's grin widened, if that were at all possible "love you too baby" he said and cut the communication.

"And?" I asked

"Give him a few hours"

"Think he'll come?" I asked

"Oh he'll come, in person too, he's a sucker for a big entrance, I recommend you get the guys together, he won't go down without a fight, and he'll bring the people we're here to help with him too"

"What makes you so sure?" I asked him

"If I were Deef, I'd bring them, cut us all to ribbons and leave the survivors here and out in the cold to freeze to death"

"Wow, I'm glad you're not Deef" I said, the look Lathain gave me made me pause, he might not be Deef, but I didn't really know anything about him. "I'll go tell the others" I said, standing up.

Lathain handed me a com unit "Give this to Lambast, got it working to a few hundred yards at least alongside mine, we could probably use it to help set up an ambush"

"Won't Deef be expecting that?" I asked

"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint now, would we?" he grinned at me, I laughed.

Lambast and Firefly however were not laughing, Wizbit looked like he might explode at the seams. "He did what?!" Wizbit fumed "Does he not realise that we're out of supplies, decent ammo, most of our weapons are either broken or missing and we're all really, really knackered? We can't fight Deef now, we'd _die_ "

"Yes, I figured he'd thought that through" I said "but we've someone coming"

"To finish us off" Wizbit supplied "and I highly doubt Deef will bring anything to carry the lot of us" he waved his arms at the monks to demonstrate the folly of Lathain's plan "and he sure like hell isn't going to let us on his aircraft again"

"Again?" I asked, picking up on the word, "Why what happened last time?"

Lambast sniggered "Wizbit levitated him off the cargo ramp and then dropped him into space" Wizbit grinned a very Lathain like grin as he shared the joke

"Lathain didn't mention that" I said, my voice stern, I sounded like an irritated mother

"Of course he didn't" Wizbit said "because it wasn't his idea" Lambast snorted through his nose in amusement again. Wizbit looked at me worried a moment, "your arm is starting to glow again"

Sure enough the feeling of magical pressure began to build, my first reflex was to panic, what if I couldn't control it? What if the vent went array? What if I hurt someone? Wizbit urged me to calm and through his direction I vented safely, easily, though the snow line had a large melt wave across it from the sparks

"Curious" Wizbit said "your magic seems to have chosen a specific form, the spell they cast was lightning based, and you tried to channel it across your body using the same spell, it looks like it's fixed in place"

"Are you telling me I can only cast lightning as a spell?" I was worried, I needed my invisibility cloak, the rest of my spells were shady at best, but I didn't want to be seen, needed to go unnoticed.

"No, your other spells should work just fine, they might even have more power to them, just you'll need to vent off the excess magical energy, and whenever you do that you'll have to bear in mind that the form will be electricity, so stay clear of large electrical items . . ."

"And technomancer elves" Firefly butted in

". . . no, no I believe technomancer elves are fine to vent on" Wizbit said grinning

"You remind me of him when you grin like that" I told Wizbit, the grin dropped immediately, much to Lambast's amusement. "So what are we going to do about Deef?" I asked, turning the topic to the problem at hand

"I suggest we clear enough rubble to get the gateway open" Lambast said "then if Deef pulls the trigger we can drop his precious cargo down the garbage chute"

This plan was met with agreement all around, Wizbit however did not agree that I should be one of the group that assisted with the clearing, the monks were plenty helpful enough and I needed rest . . . I hated being of no use, but Wizbit told me that I really should take it easy, having been blasted, electrocuted, thrown and crashed into in the last forty eight hours . . . when he put it like that I really couldn't argue with him. I made my way back to the cave where Lathain was flexing his hand; the curious little bugger had pulled his bandages off to take a look, which I then had to spend ten minutes putting back on.

"What about your wounds?" he asked

"Actually I don't feel that bad" I admitted, "since my magic blast on the roof top I don't feel the effects of the blast wave that hit me, I feel stronger in fact. I ache everywhere and I'm tired, really tired, like I need to sleep for a week"

"That's because you don't sleep well with others around" Lathain interrupted, I shot him a look

"Like you'd know" I told him "you're out like a light and don't wake up even if . . . " I trailed off and felt my cheeks flush, remembering the tent the other morning

"If what?"

"Never mind" I said, I started to pack things up into easy to carry bundles, checked the blade on my knife and slid it into my boot, the blade bigger than my own wouldn't fit in my holsters. "What are we going to do about the monks?" I asked

"Oh I got that covered, I managed to get hold of Caden, and he's on his way"

"If Caden is coming, then why tell Deef to meet us here?" I asked "Doesn't that seem a bit strange to you? Like you have a death wish or something"

"Nah, Deef is a douche and needs to feel the cold a little" Lathain said "besides I didn't remember about Caden until I'd already pissed off Deef, so unless your magic can do some rewinding then I guess we're stuck with the plan of action"

"What plan of action?" I asked picking up a rucksack full of clothing

"For Deef to get here and Lambast to blast his head off, we kill off all of his men and steal his chopper and fly off into the sun set" he grinned and I rolled my eyes.

"How do you know he's bringing a chopper?"

"Because of the signal on his com unit I just hacked"

"But then that means he's nearby" I said

"oh yeah, once I got the signal I managed to find out he'd been camped out not far from Caden's base the entire time, he knew the item was here, but he also knew he couldn't send his own men to get it"

"Why not?"

"Because they're a bunch of idiots, and most have a stupid amount of cybernetics which would freeze up here" he added, he winced as he shuffled and rose unsteadily to his feet, "better go out and meet them, you though, can stay put, don't want Deef getting his hands on you?"

"Why do you say that?" I asked, slightly hurt that once again I was being kept out of the picture, and yet softened that he might care about me

"because you're the heiress to a multi billion dollar mega corp and you need to keep your identity a secret from the world, Deef won't do that, he'll release all the info he has on you, which if he decrypts the wavelength info our message was carried on then he'll know who you are, and what you're trying to do, and how to use you to get what he wants"

"Which is?"

"Complete world domination, not to put too fine a point on it I think you'll agree that your father's corporation was massive even before he died, since his death your step-father has taken it to a whole new level, the dragons themselves hold no higher status in the market arena than your family corporation, imagine what Deef could do if he had a legitimate claim to the heir" I shuddered, there were a few ways that Deef could take over the company, and most involved being a slave to the man. "So just do as I say for a change and stay put, or better, stay hidden" he shuffled from the cave "they're only a few minutes out"

The chopper even now could be heard humming over the mountainside, with the fading light Deef would have to make this a quick ride, I decided to try a spell and cloaked myself, amazed at how easy I found it, though that didn't stop me making foot prints, so I did the sensible thing and stood in everyone else's, it made for slow progress and by the time I reached the wreckage of the pagoda the chopper had already landed and a semi circle of men were stood facing Lathain and the rest of the team. As I drew nearer I noticed there were others in the chopper, tried to slink off sideways, using the broken wood pieces from the site to prevent tracks being seen.

" . . . telling you Lathain you have her and I want her" a strange voice could be heard just over the noise of the chopper blades. Lathain's response couldn't be heard, now I had no choice but to leave tracks to get close to the chopper, I snuck as close as I was able, close enough to see a large dark mass and bright pink piny. Torrin. So Lathain had been right, Deef did bring them. I looked around to see if there was a way I could get inside the chopper without being seen, I doubted it, the pilot was keen eyed and kept surveying the area around him, and the rest of the troops were right in front of where I needed to be, my only consolation was that there were no guards inside the chopper.

A thought came to me, could I do it? I took a breath and focused, my arm burned and I glanced nervously at the thin air my arm occupied, expecting an astral glow to emanate into the visible realm, but I could see nothing. Slowly I moved forward into the area of the chopper, face first my head began to pound with the strain of focusing on two spells at once. I moved silently, my feet no longer making any sound on the snow, instead passing right through it. The inside of the chopper was cold and the wind threw itself into it. I moved and tested the floor of the chopper, carefully I swung my legs up so they were clear of the flooring then steadily I released the spell, adjusting my fingertips so they began to feel like they were against the board, rather than within it.

I was inside, sat in front of Torrin and three other figures, one a female Orc, who by the standards of most orcs, and even to the standard of most humans she was beautiful, her horns curled in a spiral twist, her skin a pale green and aside from the tear stains was flawless, she was well toned, not the aggressive build of the males. This must be Lambast's wife, two human men also sat in their seats, strapped down. All had sacks over their heads except in the case of Mrs Lambast who due to her splendid horns had a blindfold. Torrin seemed tense, I laid a hand on his arm, soft, he was warm and he was safe, he didn't appear to be injured other than a half healed scratch across his arm, probably happened when they broke in to take him, though he looked healthy, the group hadn't had access to showers, they were all rather unwashed, and the smell was strong.

I tapped lightly on his arm and his muscles eased their tension slightly, he knew it was me. I smiled and as quietly as I was able moved around to his back to see what could be done about tying his arms, a rack of weapons littered the wall beside me and I gingerly removed a small pistol, heavy and loaded. I placed the pistol in Torrin's grip and took a hold of his cuffs, unlike the two men who both wore mage cuffs Torrin's were simply re-enforced orc grade steel, strong enough that he couldn't break them, but not warded against any magic. I concentrated hard and lightly pulled the cuffs away from his wrists; the whirr of the chopper covering the clink as they hit the floor.

Torrin wisely stayed still until he got the signal from me, Lambast's wife was next, gently I laid a hand on her shoulder, she twitched nervously, but didn't call out, brave girl. I tapped on her shoulder S.O.S in Morse code, praying that she knew at least that much with a military husband, she tried to turn her head to see, but I gripped her arm a little tighter, she stopped her head movement. I looked to the cabin, the pilot was looking at the outside, not really paying attention to what was happening inside the chopper.

I repeated the process with her cuffs, once free she kept very still, too still from her earlier fidgeting. I looked up over her shoulder to survey the ground in front of me where Deef was talking with Lathain, right into the point of a pistol, a guard stood there, having used the chopper noise to sneak in, what had given me away? I glanced down for a second, a small puddle of water at my feet was spreading out, snow thawed from my boots.

Damn

At that moment Torrin whipped out a hand, catching the guard in the stomach, his finger gripped the trigger in reflex and the shot went wild, hitting the windscreen of the chopper and alerting the pilot. The moment of surprise gone I dropped the invisibility spell, pulling Lambast's wife out of the way, she screamed as she hit the deck, I pulled her blind fold from her so she could see, rolling over her and swinging out a leg to hit the pilot as he rush to aid the guard. Gunfire erupted outside the chopper, Torrin was busy trying to choke out the guard who had shot at me, the pilot now on the deck was my target.

I kicked at his jaw and tried to get up, pulling the knife from my boot, but he was faster, grabbing my foot and pulling hard, I went over, he scrabbled on top of me, using his strength to pin me down, a knee in my stomach I was winded, he grabbed my wrist and banged it hard, the knife falling from my fingers, I felt a shot of pain as my wrist broke, a second hand grabbed my hair, lifting my hair and smashing it back down against the chopper floor. My head exploded in pain and my vision swam, my stomach churned and I felt like I was going to throw up. Suddenly the weight rolled off me with a yell. I looked up to see Mrs Lambast with a rifle in her hand, the butt having been planted firmly in the face of my attacker.

Torrin dropped the guard he held, dead or close to it he hit the floor hard and lay still, Torrin moved and spun the female orc around under his shadow, turning his back to the outside, a shot hitting his shoulder, he grimaced in pain.

I scrabbled up onto my feet, my stomach hurling, I wobbled to one side, so I had cover and checked the back of my head, my hand came away thick with blood and I fought down the urge to vomit. Torrin moved up beside me, Lambast's wife pressed against the cabin, shaking. The other two prisoners had hit the floor when the gunfire started, one bled from a leg wound, the other seemed fine, if a little bruised.

"Lathain!" I shouted to Torrin over the chopper noise "Where is he?"

"Right here" Lathain's voice lifted over the noise of the chopper, he scrabbled into the chopper and headed for the cock pit, pulling a few switches the chopper blades died down. "We won Ghost, all's well" he said with a grin. I smiled back and looked out over the snow. Lambast stood over a figure in the white and red splashed snow, leaning down he grasped something, hard digging his claws into the prone man's skull, I heard the sound of bone breaking, the skull bone collapsing under the huge pressure, Deef, was no more, the sight of it reminded me my stomach needed to empty itself, so from the head wound or the bits of brain oozing over Lambast's claws I couldn't quite tell, but I threw up over the edge of the chopper, rolled onto my back and promptly passed out.

When I woke there was the smell of clinical alcohol and the faint hum of fluorescent lights, the glow permeated my eye lids until I opened then. I already knew where I was, I'd spent enough time here to know every ceiling tile. A soft weight on my stomach and I knew I was home, at Doc's. Mei-Juu's little black face appeared in my vision.

"Déjà vu?" Torrin's voice asked me. I groaned and tried to sit up, looking around Torrin was sat in one of the small plastic chairs, the first thing I did was wretch, my stomach pulled trying to empty, but nothing came up, that told me on its own I had been here for a while.

"Not quite" I said, "last time I wasn't throwing up" I looked around, my vision following my head at a slight delay, that in itself was mildly nauseating "and I'm pretty sure there were beepy things in the corner" I waggled my fingers, noting the lack of a monitor

"That's because you fried the two units I tried to use on you" Doc walked in through a gap in the curtain, her belly swollen with child. "You're well and truly buggered this time Ghost" she said admonishingly "What did you do to yourself? You're full of internal bleeds, god knows what drug you've taken but it's running wild with my tests, your skull is fractured, your wrist is broken, ribs cracked, nose done in." she paused as if waiting for an explanation, when none was received she continued like an angry mother "not to mention the fact that you're so full of magical juice that the magic keeps popping out of you in waves, it's fried two heart monitors, the lights in my operating theatre, heck the last one blew the power out and we were using candles for three hours, your arm is scarred to the nines and your energy level is too high for a magical heal, Brianna says you're glowing like a Christmas tree under her eyes. Now tell me what you're playing at and how you intend to foot the bill for the damage to my clinic"

Torrin raised a hand gingerly "she was coming to save me" he began

"And don't you dare for one minute think I'm not blaming you too Torrin" she snapped "You're as bad as she is, and the rabble you brought in with you, heck they're all bonkers, the elf child keeps calling me "babe" Tor, you've some explaining to do, and what . . ." she screamed pointing to Mei-Juu "is that _thing_ doing in here, this is a _hospital_ for crying out loud" she stamped her foot and fumed, fists clenched.

You could almost visibly see her rage soften and drain out her, personally I felt terrified, I hadn't realised it but I'd snuck under the covers as much as possible in an attempt to look smaller and be less of a target.

"Sorry" I mumbled, with that word her shoulders dropped, no longer angry, she rubbed her protruding belly and huffed

"you're both mental" she said softly, she raised a finger and pointed at me menacingly "you're to stay in that bed and not make a sound until I give you the say so, there'll be no sneaking out, no games and if you test me there'll be no visitors either" I gulped and nodded my acceptance. Doc was scary when she was pregnant.

The sound of someone clearing their throat made her turn around, "is she allowed visitors now?" Lathain's ears pricked up hopefully. Doc stepped aside to let him in, "Thanks babe" he grinned and swiftly got an ear clipping from her right hand

"The next time I see you ghost, you'd better be _walking_ in here" she said sternly, her warning wasn't lost on me and I promised to be as good as I was able before she walked away leaving me alone with Lathain and Torrin.

"She's the motherly type" Lathain muttered quietly, he turned to me "before you ask everyone is alright, Lambast is home with his wife, who by the way for an orc is pretty smoking, how'd you figure he ended up with someone like her?" he paused, noting my look of confusion and carried on "Wizbit is somewhere, no idea where but he's safe too, Firefly is a couple of wings over, just recovering from a couple of bullet holes, but he's alright" he waved his bandaged hand in the air "I'm fine too, some major rework to go but my hand will be pretty much the same as it was before after a few weeks. Firefly's contact took a hit pretty bad in the leg, but he's fine, limping and yelling abuse at the staff but he's fine, then there's you, nearly dead but fine, see everyone's fine" he grinned again

"I don't think I'm fine Lathain" I said quietly, I stroked Mei-Juu's ears idly; I turned to Torrin, biting my lip "Torrin, I think I should move out"

The room went silent.

Author's notes

Thanks for reading, as usual I had a great time writing, and as usual I missed out a whole lotta stuff that happened in the _actual_ game play. Partly because my character wasn't around to see the events that unfolded but also because when you play game after game then you kind of lose track of what happened and when, and it's only when you come to write it all down that you think "Oh yeah, I did that"

I'm still new to writing stories, this being the second campaign of Shadowrun we played, so a lot of the info might seem out of place, but I promise I'll figure out a way for it to all come together, that or I'll simply re-write the whole lot over.

The guys, as usual you were awesome to play with, Mark once again you never said ANYTHING in character, so if you don't like your characters wit then tough, it's your own fault. Jon-Paul you're a damn good role player, unfortunately your best bits were never revealed in character, so much of them are missed out, I'll try and do some foot notes or something for you. George, bless you weren't there every week but I tried to fit you in as much as I could. Chris, you mental bastard, I swear you only exist to piss off the GM.

Ben, dude you rule, I don't care how great you think this version of events is, yours was better. I love having you as my GM, don't ever change.

To the peeps reading this, you poor things, I swear I'll try and write better, my grammar is awful and all I can do is apologise . . . and maybe pay someone to check it for me before I print . . . eh, fuck it.

Cheers

Ghost x

2015 - update May 2017 for


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